What is compassion?

Something alive perhaps, that can only be understood in practice. So often confused with pity or the self-sacrificing impulse to take on another’s burden, to make things better, to fix. It takes strength and delicacy and it doesn’t mean giving away your life savings.

Self compassion is sometimes the place between pushing through and giving up, the moment we can recognize our true needs, not our desires even if they’re for further suffering. Sometimes the moment we find self compassion is the moment we stop and walk away.

I had found forgiveness in Switzerland and now I was heading to friends in Rome before taking the leap to South East Asia, to Sri Lanka, to a new understanding of compassion and self compassion.

The fourth in the Camino de la Luna series by Pearl Howie.

From Genoa (or Genova), through Rome and on to Sicily, I finally make it back to London and from there continue falling forwards to South East Asia, hoping for a soft landing in Sri Lanka.

It's in Sri Lanka that I open my heart and discover a new understanding of what compassion is…

Perfect for those who enjoy an adventure travel story and want to know what it's really like to take off round the world with a rucksack.