Living with compassion for oneself and others

Two super hurricanes in three weeks have brought out the best in people. Strangers helping stranded neighbors. People opening their homes to evacuees. Residents following calls to move to higher ground. Animals being led to safety.

Evacuation centers opened up. Politicians dropped their differences for the sake of a common goal and safety. Stronger, healthier people assisted weaker, sicker people. Social media became a means of support, warning and shared safety messages. Nobody asked anyone else if you were a fill-in-the-blank. People just helped other people.

Everything good that can happen in a "disaster" happened. In the face of the unimaginable, compassion arose quickly, easily and naturally.

Did all the bad stuff we so often hear reported happen? Of course. It always does.

But seeing the way millions of people pitched in to help, to do what they could, to offer what they had warmed my heart. It gives me hope.

I know. I know. There's the aftermath. There's the next month, the next season, the next year and year after that. We'll all go back to our lives because that's what we do. We really must. But for one frightening, three-week period -- and God help us, if there are more, we'll do it again -- we hung together. We helped. We did the right thing. We showed our common humanity. We cared because that's what you do. And we pray that someone will be there for us in our time of need.

Thank you all you amazing people. I knew you were there all along. I'm so glad you showed yourself. Thank you; you did great!