From Cruelty to Compassion — A Grandmother’s Response
Dear Friends, 🥰 Yesterday’s circle stayed with me — the stories, the qualities we brought, and Karen’s share of Stephen Dinan’s powerful article Turning Cruelty into Compassion. I’ve written a short reflection that weaves his message with our theme from Chapter 30 and offers a TAG Reality Statement we can all use to hold a higher vision for world leadership. I hope it inspires you as much as it inspires me. 💖
Reflections from the Circle of Lighting from Within – Sustaining Heart-Centered Living
Yesterday, six grandmothers gathered in our weekly Lighting from Within storytelling circle.
We began by naming the qualities we each carried into the space: Clarity, Alignment, Adventure, Global Clarity, and Hope.
Two hours later, we left with Hope (x2), Love, Peace, Friendship, and Sharing — living proof of what can happen when women gather to listen deeply to one another.
Our theme came from Chapter 30 of A Listening Grandmother, which reminds us:
Look with your whole heart, not with fear. You are not here to save the world. You are here to bless it.
And this question:
How might healing your own ‘fault lines’ help shift the faultlines in the collective?
When Karen Brought Stephen Dinan’s Voice to the Circle
One of our circle members, Karen Crane, shared a newsletter from Stephen Dinan titled Turning Cruelty into Compassion – Alchemy to Hasten the End of the Trump Era.
It was a call to see cruelty not as an immovable wall, but as a symptom of unresolved trauma — and to meet it not with hatred, but with a rigorous, courageous form of love.
Stephen writes:
“Cruelty is a gateway for us to approach the unresolved traumas and incomplete karmas in the spirit of healers, which requires a foundation of unconditional love… Our clear-eyed, open-hearted witness of cruelty can transmute it into compassion. In that way, we are serving the collective healing required to evolve out of the Trump era.”
He names something important: that cruelty — whether in political leadership, systems of power, or everyday life — often hides deep wounding. Meeting that cruelty with hatred only reinforces the same cycle. Meeting it with clear-eyed compassion opens the possibility for change.
Moving from Reflection to Creation — The TAG Process
Hearing Stephen’s words, I was reminded of a practice we can use to take this insight beyond conversation and into energetic reality creation.
It’s the Global Reality Creation – TAG Reality Statement for World Leaders from A Listening Grandmother (page 249):
I exist in a reality where all world leaders — including Trump, Vance, Putin, Netanyahu, Ali Khamenei, and Xi Jinping — are aligned with their original soul agreements to serve with wisdom, humility, and justice.
I exist in a reality where the energies of domination, manipulation, fear-based control, and bloodline entitlements are fully transmuted and returned to Source.
I exist in a reality where each named leader is met by their Higher Self and shown the karmic cost of their actions — with a path to healing clearly offered.
I exist in a reality where deception is replaced by transparency, aggression by diplomacy, and self-interest by collective care.
I exist in a reality where every act of leadership is spiritually accountable and energetically aligned with the highest good of all people and the Earth.
Why This Matters Now
Stephen’s article asks us to face cruelty without flinching — to respond as healers, not as enemies.
The TAG Reality Statement gives us a way to hold that vision steadily, to energetically template the reality we want to live in.
It is not passive.
It is not naïve.
It is an act of spiritual sovereignty — aligning ourselves with the highest possible outcome for our shared future.
If this speaks to you, I invite you to:
- Read Stephen Dinan’s article in full.
- Sit quietly and read the TAG Reality Statement aloud, slowly and with intention, follow with the rest of the TAG process as described pages 250 - 251
- Imagine the possibility of these words already being true.
- Notice the shift in your own heart and energy.
This is how cruelty can, indeed, be turned into compassion.
Not in abstraction, but through the steady, lived choice to bless the world.