DeborahBurkeHenderson.com

APRIL 2025 – BE JOYFUL IN OTHERS’ SUCCESS

I love learning new-to-me words and appreciating the beauty of different languages. Recently, I was exposed to the Sanskrit or Pali word mudita [mooh-dee’-tah] which means “extending sympathetic or unselfish joy in the good fortune of others.”

Mudita reminds me of the Arabic word mabrouk which I learned fifty years ago while serving as an ESL instructor in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, Northern Africa. Mabrouk basically means congratulations and is a term I still often share when someone has acquired something new.

Do you feel envious or jealous when someone else experiences good fortune?

Honestly, there are times when I still do, but as I age, I strive to widen my perspective and by doing so for the most part, I find myself truly enjoying other people’s successes. In a way it encourages me that there is plenty of good fortune to go around. Engaging in a daily meditation practice helps me develop this wider composure.

Do not let envy and jealousy become a habit … because that only increases a sense of separation.

Look for opportunities to cultivate and express your authentic joy about others’ success. As you extend joy or mudita to others, you will develop and strengthen your connection with them and experience a greater sense of unity. Let these interactions then be reminders that we are all part of the whole.

Sufi master Rumi says, “Love is the bridge between you and everything.” Witnessing my late sister Robin’s passing, now nearly four years ago, brought the gift of understanding that love is the essence of our being. Love is our common denominator.

In these changing times, believe in this essence within and shine your love light in every direction and to all beings and our earth. Although I still (and probably always will) hold a Robin-sized hole in my heart, she encourages me to move on with life, to participate, to stretch and grow, to make moments for playfulness and creativity and to be loving to all.

Pema Chodron, American-born Tibetan Buddhist and ordained nun, stated, “Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”

Let us seek our shared humanity. Let us rejoice in it every day.

Amen and let it be so,

Deborah

    ________________________

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud

was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

– Anaïs Nin

My morning mantra:

"I arise this morning with a smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. 

I vow to live fully in each moment and to greet every being I meet with compassion."

        ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist 

                                                                                    [1926 - 2022]