I remember once, when my children were still very small.

It was an unforgivably hot summer evening—the sort that drives even the world to slow her pace. We had ventured off for ice cream – two scoops of mint chocolate chip (on waffle cones, no less).

As I buckled the children safely into their car seats, my toddler son cried out,

“Mommy, ouch!”

He was pointing to an old woman wandering aimlessly in the streets.

“Mommy, OUCH!” he pointed with urgency, once again.

Car horns blared, as passersby swerved impatiently left to right – not one of them stopping to help this beautiful human soul.

At just two-years-old my dearest son had more sense than the rest of them pulled together.

I’m always shocked at these passages of indifference. What causes some to stop, while others continue on their way?

Oh, and how we’ve all been guilty on occasion.

We walk past with eyes averted, hoping our hearts will soon follow suit. But, the mind is forever haunted by these images of suffering.

And yet, is guilt enough to change behavior?

Anton Chekhov once wrote, that ‘indifference is a paralysis of the soul.’ And, I could think of no better way to describe this ‘condition’ of moving past when others clearly need us.

I was once asked if I felt detachment was an excuse for indifference – that is to say, does mind create the conditions by which we choose to look away?

I’ve always believe that ours is a path of service – that we learn compassion for ourselves through our interactions with others. In doing so, perhaps we might ‘see’ that we are not so separate from those before us? That we are all connected in this fabric of being?

My darlings, it doesn’t really matter how great or how small the effort – it’s the doing that makes the difference.

For this elderly woman, it was simply a matter of helping her to the curb – offering a bit of shade, and the benefit of a listening ear.

As Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote, “Let me count the ways.”

And so, on this day, my dearest darlings – let us count the ways in which we may be of service to others.

Namaste <3