Kate (at info@givit.org.au) manages all our major donations and also does the most crying in the office. She emailed me today thanking me (!) for the opportunity to work at GIVIT, and be apart of this amazing world of giving. Yesterday she co-ordinated a great donation to a wonderful flood affected family, and the details are sad but inspiring. Tears flowing for quite a while this morning.. it felt like my heart broke and opened at the same time!
Kate is so so hearty. She is a full time volunteer, and is in love with her demanding role. Her love is deep and also on her sleeve. I don't know what I would do without her. I have never said as much but she looks younger and younger to me every day.
I was thinking about Kate, and her compassion when I read this article -certainly not in the first part though :)
The Huffington Post describes "The anti-inflammatory properties of compassion have now begun to be studied. In a 2009 study, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine, trained 33 people in a Tibetan Buddhist compassion meditation, which involved the structured generation of feelings of compassion, and compared them with a group of 28 people who didn't do the meditation. After six weeks those who did the most compassion meditation had much lower levels of inflammation than those who did the least or none at all. "
It explains that inflammation is related to aging, so this research "certainly tells us that compassion could slow the aging process."
I feel younger too! But haven't noticed any of those other changes!
Juliette,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about Kate, in the 12 years I have known her, compassion has flowed out on a regular basis. This is a woman who will truly give you the shirt from her back. The stories I could tell of strangers she has followed home to help are astounding. As a friend of hers I feel both blessed and inspired! As for the anti-inflammatory effects of compassion - it certainly helps settle what could be inflammatory situations! Thank you to both you and Kate, and your many other volunteers for putting your skills and knowledge to work in this incredible way! Vive Givit!