Principle #2: Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

Ever since I read J’s post about the compassionate crabs I’ve had a Shawn Colvin song “Climb On (A Back That’s Strong)” running through my head. Not a bad thought to be carrying around.

But I’ve been reflecting on her post in light of the Wise Heart chapter I read this week,  too. I am always amazed when I hear a story like that about animal kindness. A mother dog nurses an abandoned kitten along with her own puppies. Elephants free an antelope from a pen. A dolphin aids a drowning human. Ants have been seen to pull thorns from other injured ants. Wow, I think, how incredible, how unusual. And I guess I think that because somehow I’ve come to believe that an animal can’t have compassion. That compassion is a complex thing, only humans can express. But this week another possibility occurred to me. Perhaps compassion is an innate part of all living things, a natural instinct. And perhaps we humans are the only living things who choose repress it.