Here’s a powerful thought from Edith Windsor:
“If you really care about the quality of somebody’s life as much as you care about the quality of your own, you have it made.”
I was struck by the great truth in Windsor’s words. On days when my focus was almost exclusively on caring for others, where that was people or animals, there was a deep soul satisfaction that is never matched by any day when the focus is on me.
In the deepest sense, caring for others – and particularly in caring for animals – offers a satisfaction that ultimately does serve me, I know that. Yet somehow, in the larger scheme, it seems that creating that peaceful joy inside myself as a result of caring for others is a good thing.
There is always a struggle between my selfish self and my giving self. Perhaps one reason I surround myself with so many animals and so many demands that pull me out of myself is to keep the request in front of me always to be my best self, to be present in the moment which is the only way one can truly serve another being.
