Compassion allows you to communicate and connect with others more fully around common vulnerabilities.  As you bring compassion to yourself, you are better able to offer it to others.  compassion counteract the isolation that can result from our self-defeating internal head talk.  It enables us to see that our suffering is a shared experience without our human family, and that we are interconnected and interdependent.  We can then engage each other with compassion and kindness.  Kathleen Erickson-Freeman

In other words, when you talk to yourself be nice.

And when you’re studying compassion – what it is, how it works – make sure you practice on yourself first and foremost.  You cannot give to someone else what you don’t understand or haven’t experienced yourself.

It is time to no longer let others – the media, your community, your work place, your family – define you.  It is time to claim your Crone power – that feminine wisdom that has been  disparaged, belittled, attacked, and maligned by a world that is afraid of a woman centered in her own power with – a power that nurtures community, honors the earth, and sees clearly what needs to die so that something new can be reborn.  For what is the power of the Crone if not the life/death/life dancing o f Kali-Ma and the strength and warrior power of the Morrigan to stand up and work for what and whom we love.  The Crone is she who helps you answer Mary Oliver’s question, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” with “I am dreaming bigger and growing every day.  And I am not letting fear stop me.”

The Crone meets you on your path in times of transformation to hold your hand and walk with you (no matter your age, but especially in the

last third of your life) when the lizard brain flicks its tongue and hisses “You are too old to follow your heart, there’s not enough time, you don’t have the technical skills, there are so many others doing the same thing – only better – you have tried and failed – just go ahead and quit.  No one will think less of you”.  She is the one who whispers:  “Never mind the lizard – he is afraid and can only see old patterns and beliefs.  He is the gardian at the gate but you are the magic key – he cannot stop you.  Do not give up now.  You are almost there.”

The Crone is Compassion manifested.  She knows that imperfection walks hand in hand with trying something new.  And She is you.  She is just waiting for you to notice that she has been with you and in you from the very first time you stepped out on an adventure, trembling and unsure, but on the path anyways.  She is the voice that speaks through you, even if it is shaking, when you say “This far, no further” to anyone or thing who would stand in the way fo your becoming more fully you.

Claim her.

Exercise:  one way to consider integrating your Crone is to do a vision board of how you see yourself in Crone power.  The only requirement is that you put a picture of yourself in the center.  The rest is up to you:  color or black and white; drawing or photographs; poetry, prose or random letters.  Hang it up where you can see it every day.  (if you want  step by step help with creating a vision board, go here.)