Compassionate Detachment by Jocelyn Duffley

This piece perfectly expresses the challenges of the path of The Hermit.  Thank you Jocelyn for sharing your writings with us all!

As spiritual aspirants, we are natural helpers, healers and problem solvers, each playing a unique role.   These roles are not grandiose and earning accolades; they are daily triumphs over lower energies that do not serve the greater good, and require the use of all the tools developed in the Work through life experience. Compassionate detachment has got to be one of the most difficult tools to use, a cumulative skill that requires an open heart, effective communication and ability to look at “the hand” of God.  

 I always thought that compassionate detachment was an oxymoron. Compassion is giving love and detachment is pulling back. Compassionate detachment is a fine line between those two things. Just like a plant that dies from its owner overwatering with love, so does excessive help hinder independent growth in the individual receiving it.   Stepping back is sometimes the best thing we can do for both ourselves and others. Detaching alone would be cold, so compassion is given through proper communication.   Just as one tests the soil to see if it needs water, so must we put out our feelers with “thoughts, words and deeds” (Pattern on the Trestle Board). After assessing and communicating through the heart, one can determine a course of action with confidence of being in alignment with the divinity within.