“When I came home and went back to work, I looked around and said to myself, ‘If only we could see the 'inward rappel' so many of us are making right now — the daunting challenges so many folks wake up to each morning — we’d have more compassion and offer each other more support. If our inner struggles were more visible, more compassion would flow.’

I know there are situations where it's dangerous to be transparent about your fears — though I also know there are ways to create safe space to get the support we all need. But whatever our situation, all of us can exercise an empathetic imagination about the ‘inward rappels’ others are making, just as the poet Miller Williams urges us to do:

Compassion

Have compassion for everyone you meet

even if they don't want it. What seems like conceit,

bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign

of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.

You do not know what wars are going on

down there where the spirit meets the bone.”