On Marriage and Compassion

This is a story from Paulo Coelho...

Accepting compassion

'How can we purify the world?' asked a disciple.

Ibn al-Husayn replied:

'There was once a sheik in Damascus called Abu Musa al-Qumasi. Everyone respected him because of his wisdom, but no one knew for certain that he was a good man.

One evening, the house where the sheik and his wife lived collapsed, apparently because of some fault in the construction. The neighbours began desperately digging amongst the rubble. At one point, they managed to find the sheik's wife.

She said: "Don't bother about me. Save my husband first, he was sitting more or less over there."

The neighbours shifted the rubble in the place she had indicated and found the sheik. He said: "Don't worry about me. Save my wife first, she was lying more or less over there."

When people act as that couple did, they are purifying the whole world.

I love Paulo Coelho...he is definitely one of my top 5 favorite authors. I really like this story. I hope that Patrick and I can always remember to act like this couple...showing compassion toward each other, loving the other first, concerned with the other's well being, flooding our words and actions with kindness and love.