“Compassion, then, before anything else, is the work of feeling with the other. And it is work – ask any therapist – emotional work, psychic work, spiritual work; we might call it heart work, womb work, gut work. It is work which demands the focusing of attention on the other and thus requires a radical de-centring of the ego; work which often requires a patience and endurance in the presence of the other’s intractable reality. Being with the other in all the different moods of their passion is a costly process.”
Nicola Slee, feminist poet and theologian, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection
Chorlton Unitarians 