July 2023

“Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.”

This quote is by Victor Hugo, a French politician and author who is best known for his novels Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Whenever I hear or read about someone or a group of people who have persevered, who have continued to strive despite difficulties and challenges, I find myself admiring them. When I think of persevering, I usually think of accomplishments such as a person overcoming an addiction, someone going through treatment for a serious illness, the people who sacrificed their energy and time in the Civil Rights movement, and people rebuilding their home after it was destroyed by a natural disaster. There are many other examples of people doing what is needed and not succumbing to the part of us that questions whether we can keep putting forth the effort.

It is important to recognize that perseverance is necessary in more day-to-day situations also. Doing our best as parents to care for, be patient with, and spend quality time with our children; consistently making an effort to do well at our jobs; caretaking elderly parents; trying to be persons of integrity; and endeavoring to become more conscious all require perseverance as well. Not giving up, not taking the easy way.

I think of my coworker who two years ago, when she was only 29 years old, was diagnosed with a type of cancer that is more difficult to treat than some other types. She has endured the discomfort and sometimes pain caused by the cancer and also by the various courses of treatment, and she has persevered. She attributes her ability to not give up to having loving and supportive people in her life and to the gift of faith she has been given. She often expresses gratitude to the Creator for both.

I think of young women and men starting their first full-time jobs, getting used to this new aspect of being adults, and learning the work requirements, including the difficulty of sometimes learning by making mistakes.

I think of parents raising their children, making it a priority to spend time with them even after a long day at work; trying to be a good example for them; making decisions about what is best for them; and so many other aspects of parenting that require perseverance.

Victor Hugo’s quote speaks of triumphs. Sometimes there are small triumphs along the way—my friend experiencing a reprieve when her cancer symptoms are easier to tolerate, a young adult feeling pleased about completing a project at work, parents seeing their love for their children reflected back to them by their children’s smiles and hugs–and seeing what a miracle their children are.

Doing what we need to do to persevere in various life situations is part of living a full and meaningful life.

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”

These words by the Dalai Lama express how essential our ability to love and our ability to be compassionate are. I’m thankful that many people have these qualities. And I’m concerned that there are people who do not—or who are very limited in their ability to love and to have compassion.

There are many influences on people’s emotional and psychological development as they grow from infancy to adulthood. As children, we are influenced by the other people in our lives, especially by our parents. And over time by other family members, teachers, and various adults whom we see on a regular basis. Additional influences are our physical environment, life experiences—both expected and unexpected—and our genetic makeup, among others.

When we are treated with love and compassion as babies and during the childhood years, those virtues are much more likely to become a part of our nature throughout our lives. Love and compassion also grow in us when we see, hear, and read about other people modeling these qualities.

I have the good fortune of living just a few miles from my nine-month-old grandson, and therefore I’m able to be with him every few days. It has been a joy to see how he’s changed between each visit—so much happens in the early years of childhood. He started crawling not long ago, and I can see how fun it is for him to have that ability to move about and explore. It has also been a joy for me to see his smiles. They are the smiles of a little one who is loved. And there are many other children who are loved. But some children are born into situations where their parents are limited in their ability to feel and express love and compassion. This is often because their parents did not experience this type of nurturing themselves. It is especially for children in these situations that we need to both have compassion and to model loving kindness in our words and actions.

As the Dalai Lama says, without love and compassion humanity cannot survive. We all are part of helping humanity not only to survive but to thrive. When we grow in consciousness, our ability to love and to be compassionate also increases. By remembering that our words and actions have an effect on others, especially on children, we can be more watchful of what we do and say. This is true whether our words and actions are directed toward a certain individual or whether they are observed by others. And that observation is often by children when we aren’t even aware of it.

Let us all do our part to add to the love and compassion that are in our world.

Month: July 2023

Perseverance

Love and Compassion Are Necessities