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Compassion Is Action — Turning Pain Anger Resentment and Any Suffering into Purpose, Together
Over the past fifteen months, I’ve attended seven funerals. One was for a suicide — a fourteen-year-old boy. I lost a close friend to cancer, a beautiful soul who left behind two boys. I’ve watched people I love struggle with addiction, sudden loss, violence, and despair. And I’ve witnessed anger rising even in my own community — including the day my tires were slashed in a moment of misunderstanding.
All of this left me asking: What is happening to us? And more importantly: What do we do now?
The surprising thing I discovered was this: the moments that brought me peace weren’t the ones where I tried to avoid grief — they were the ones where I met it with care. Sitting with my friend in hospice, rubbing her feet. Writing notes to grieving families. Listening to a brother tell stories about the sister he lost. I realized that compassion isn’t a feeling — it’s an action. The courage to bring tenderness to places of suffering. The choice to show up when it would be easier to look away.
Father Gregory Boyle writes, “Compassion isn’t a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a covenant between equals.” That sentence lives at the heart of this project.
And Father Richard Rohr reminds us that pain, when it is not transformed, is transmitted — to our children, our communities, our politics, our streets.
Compassion Is Action is my attempt — our attempt — to transform that pain into connection instead of more suffering.
The Kickoff Event: 40 People, 50 Care Packages, and the Beginning of a Movement
Last week, 40 teenagers and adults gathered to create 50 care packages filled with intention, love, and hope.
1. Compassion Care Packages Delivered to school board members, county commissioners, pastors, and community leaders, inviting them into a 12-month journey of compassion. These boxes included youth-made vision boards, books on compassion and suicide prevention, and an invitation to participate in shaping a more connected Chattanooga.
2. Grief Care Packages Prepared for families who lose loved ones to suicide, addiction, violence, or sudden tragedy. They contain comfort items, books, lavender towels, prayer ties, handwritten notes — quiet acts of care that say, “You are not alone.”
Your generosity fully funded these 50 packages. You helped us begin this movement with something real, tangible, and human.
⸻A 12-Month Movement Rooted in the Five Principles of Compassion
Compassion Is Action is a year-long community effort grounded in five simple principles — practices I am trying to learn myself and hope others will embody throughout the year:
The Five Principles
See clearly. Pay attention to suffering — in yourself, your neighbor, your community.
Stay connected. We belong to one another; no one heals alone.
Act with courage. Turn empathy into tangible care — a meal, a letter, a presence. Include yourself.
Extend to yourself the grace you offer others.
Keep going. Compassion isn’t about fixing everything; it’s about not walking away.
Our monthly events will bring these principles to life across many issues in our city — from suicide prevention, homelessness, racial and political division, and violence in our communities, to caring for the elderly, supporting the incarcerated, healing our earth, and walking alongside those experiencing grief.
This project is not political. It is human. It is a practice of showing up — together.
⸻ January: Building a Zero-Suicide Chattanooga On January 10, author Helen Epstein will travel to Chattanooga to partner with families who have lost children to suicide. She’ll share her research on why some communities experience suicide epidemics — and how others prevent them. Families will share their stories, and then we’ll work together to explore what it would take for Chattanooga to become a zero-suicide community. Helen is donating her time and books. We are raising funds only for her travel and hotel.
⸻ February: Dinners for Understanding In February, we’ll host 10 dinners across the city, each gathering 8–10 people from different races, backgrounds, life experiences, and political beliefs. These dinners create a safe and structured way to listen across difference and discover shared humanity. Each host will receive $100 for food and supplies.
⸻ Funding Need: $2,500 To bring our January and February events to life, we need to raise $2,500:
• $1,500 for Helen Epstein’s travel and hotel
• $1,000 for 10 dinner hosts at $100 each Every gift matters.
$50 makes a real impact. If you can give more — thank you, truly.
If not, sharing this GoFundMe is also a gift. ⸻
Why I’m Doing This I launched Compassion Is Action as a birthday promise to myself: to meet the world’s pain with care instead of despair. To turn grief into purpose. To help build a city where compassion is not the exception — it’s our culture.
Thank you for helping make that possible.
Over the past fifteen months, I’ve attended seven funerals. One was for a suicide — a fourteen-year-old boy. I lost a close friend to cancer, a beautiful soul who left behind two boys. I’ve watched people I love struggle with addiction, sudden loss, violence, and despair. And I’ve witnessed anger rising even in my own community — including the day my tires were slashed in a moment of misunderstanding.
All of this left me asking: What is happening to us? And more importantly: What do we do now?
The surprising thing I discovered was this: the moments that brought me peace weren’t the ones where I tried to avoid grief — they were the ones where I met it with care. Sitting with my friend in hospice, rubbing her feet. Writing notes to grieving families. Listening to a brother tell stories about the sister he lost. I realized that compassion isn’t a feeling — it’s an action. The courage to bring tenderness to places of suffering. The choice to show up when it would be easier to look away.
Father Gregory Boyle writes, “Compassion isn’t a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a covenant between equals.” That sentence lives at the heart of this project.
And Father Richard Rohr reminds us that pain, when it is not transformed, is transmitted — to our children, our communities, our politics, our streets.
Compassion Is Action is my attempt — our attempt — to transform that pain into connection instead of more suffering.
The Kickoff Event: 40 People, 50 Care Packages, and the Beginning of a Movement
Last week, 40 teenagers and adults gathered to create 50 care packages filled with intention, love, and hope.
1. Compassion Care Packages Delivered to school board members, county commissioners, pastors, and community leaders, inviting them into a 12-month journey of compassion. These boxes included youth-made vision boards, books on compassion and suicide prevention, and an invitation to participate in shaping a more connected Chattanooga.
2. Grief Care Packages Prepared for families who lose loved ones to suicide, addiction, violence, or sudden tragedy. They contain comfort items, books, lavender towels, prayer ties, handwritten notes — quiet acts of care that say, “You are not alone.”
Your generosity fully funded these 50 packages. You helped us begin this movement with something real, tangible, and human.
⸻A 12-Month Movement Rooted in the Five Principles of Compassion
Compassion Is Action is a year-long community effort grounded in five simple principles — practices I am trying to learn myself and hope others will embody throughout the year:
The Five Principles
See clearly. Pay attention to suffering — in yourself, your neighbor, your community.
Stay connected. We belong to one another; no one heals alone.
Act with courage. Turn empathy into tangible care — a meal, a letter, a presence. Include yourself.
Extend to yourself the grace you offer others.
Keep going. Compassion isn’t about fixing everything; it’s about not walking away.
Our monthly events will bring these principles to life across many issues in our city — from suicide prevention, homelessness, racial and political division, and violence in our communities, to caring for the elderly, supporting the incarcerated, healing our earth, and walking alongside those experiencing grief.
This project is not political. It is human. It is a practice of showing up — together.
⸻ January: Building a Zero-Suicide Chattanooga On January 10, author Helen Epstein will travel to Chattanooga to partner with families who have lost children to suicide. She’ll share her research on why some communities experience suicide epidemics — and how others prevent them. Families will share their stories, and then we’ll work together to explore what it would take for Chattanooga to become a zero-suicide community. Helen is donating her time and books. We are raising funds only for her travel and hotel.
⸻ February: Dinners for Understanding In February, we’ll host 10 dinners across the city, each gathering 8–10 people from different races, backgrounds, life experiences, and political beliefs. These dinners create a safe and structured way to listen across difference and discover shared humanity. Each host will receive $100 for food and supplies.
⸻ Funding Need: $2,500 To bring our January and February events to life, we need to raise $2,500:
• $1,500 for Helen Epstein’s travel and hotel
• $1,000 for 10 dinner hosts at $100 each Every gift matters.
$50 makes a real impact. If you can give more — thank you, truly.
If not, sharing this GoFundMe is also a gift. ⸻
Why I’m Doing This I launched Compassion Is Action as a birthday promise to myself: to meet the world’s pain with care instead of despair. To turn grief into purpose. To help build a city where compassion is not the exception — it’s our culture.
Thank you for helping make that possible.