Bring Compassion Into Your Life With Simple Choices

You are born with compassion.


You wake up with it every morning. 


You simply need to remember to incorporate it into the little choices you make every day.  In doing so, you can bring it to life.  



In every choice that you make, you can either rely on the programing that your primordial ancestors endowed us with [see amygdala below], or you can rise above and personally evolve by making the right choices.  


Remember, life is lived in the little choices we make.  Not in the earth shattering decisions we see in the movies.


The next time a car cuts you off, don't raise a finger, simply smile.  The next time an co-worker puts you down, don't raise your voice, simply stick to the facts.  Remember, you are traveling on a speck of dust, spinning through the Universe at more than 66,660 miles and hour.    No matter how great a slight, it is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.  But the small choices you make are not.  


So choose the path of compassion you were born with.








simple truth
jeffrey cannon

Are People Good or Evil?

When I was young I asked my older brother if people were inherently good or evil.  He thought about it for a while before answering.  Finally he said, “the reason every car window is not smashed after being parked on the street all night, and the reason every antenna is not bent or torn out is that the vast majority of people don’t want to hurt someone else’s property.  The only reason cities are not in a case of constant riot is that people actually want to live in peace if they are given the chance.” 

Peace and compassion are the most natural state for people.  We desire company and friendship.  We desire love.  Yes, there will always be a small minority who use violence as a release or to get what they want.  But for the most part, most people play fairly.  Most people are honest. Most people are loving. 

So expect the best.  But be prepared for the worst.  Give people a chance to be good.  Approach them with compassion but watch for their response.  You will most likely be surprised at how willing people are to help.  Just be prepared if the alternative happens.

Leave yourself a path to walk away from that small percent that is not.

Jeffrey Cannon

Simple Truth

A model, her date, a taxi and karma catching up

It was the end of Saturday afternoon and the start of Saturday night.  We were standing on the corner, near L'Express on 20th Street and Park when a taxi pulled up not twenty feet away.  A guy in his thirties got out.  Good looking and well dressed enough, but with that kind of full of himself look that makes you wonder what else he's harboring.  He stood on the curb, immediately opened his mobile and started to text.  Didn't close the door or reach back to help anyone else out.  So it kind of caught everyone's attention in a partially curious way.  


But what really caught our eyes was when the taxi door slammed shut and the yellow cab jumped into the traffic. 

He was as surprised as the rest of us.  He spun around with a look on this face.  Just in time to see the taxi screech to a stop, partially blocking traffic.  The window came down and a woman's face stretched out.  She had that model/actress/whatever look to her.  Lovely and bright and exotic. 

She screamed, "I'm sorry, but it's just not going to work out." 

No sooner than her head pop back in but the window went up and the taxi speed off into the approaching night. 


He was left to look around and see that every face on the street was staring at him.  Some in awe, some feeling his pain, some with compassion and others on the verge of laughing, but all in shock. 

Just like him.


Was it karma catching up to him?  Or just a really bad first date?

The Politics of Hate

With the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, there has been a new call to end, or at least reduce the vitriol of Washington. Some people seem to think that lowering the anger-based rhetoric is an infringement on our basic freedom of speech. In some ways it is. But there is also a level of responsibility and maturity that goes along with the concept of free speech.

Sarah Palin recorded a statement in which she said, “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own,” Ms. Palin said in a video posted to her Facebook page. “Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.”

What she seems to forget is that when we raise the general level of discourse to include maps with gun sights targeting political leaders, we lower the level of discretion about what is right and what is wrong. I am not targeting Ms. Palin alone, as it comes in from both sides. But if we cannot see that there needs to be some level of acceptance and compassion in our public rhetoric, then we are truly doomed as a country and as a political system.

I agree with Ronald Reagan when he stated that society should not be blamed for the acts of an individual. However, I also agree with him that individuals should take responsibility for their actions. To date, I have yet to see any politicians do so.

If now is not the time? The when?