Brokenness and Compassion

Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue. (EUGENE O’NEILL, The Great God Brown)

 

When someone quoted this to me during a phone conversation, it resonated.  On reflection, my own perception is that it is that very brokenness that graces us with humanity.

It is our brokenness that both requires and makes possible compassion, one of the most beautiful aspects of the human soul.

Only in acknowledging and accepting our own brokenness, whilst always engaging in that process of ‘mending’, can we develop compassion for ourselves.

Only in finding compassion towards ourselves can we truly stop blaming and become fully compassionate towards others.

To engage in that process of ‘mending’, I think there needs to be at the very least some awareness of and sense of connection to a life force, a cohesive energy within the universe, ‘God’.