There is a black leopard whose name used to be Diablo living in a refuge for big cats. The couple who provide for the tigers and lions are devoted to these animals. They wrestle with them, hand feed them, lie down in the grass with them. But Diablo refused to allow the couple to come anywhere near his cage without menacing growls. They knew he would kill them if he could.

They invited a woman named Anna who is gifted in animal communication, and Diablo responded to her immediately. He told her that he did not want the name Diablo, with its negative connotations. He wanted to be respected. Anna assured him that there were no expectations that he be different than he was. Diablo asked about a pair of cubs that had been next to him in the zoo where he had been mistreated and the couple were astonished that Anna would have learned about that detail from Diablo. The couple were moved to tears to finally be able to understand and trust this magnificent leopard. The man thanked him over and over, and the leopard became free to release his malice. They renamed him Spirit. In accepting him for who he was he became a new animal, one with dignity instead of rage, calm instead of revenge. 

People, too, lash out when they are in pain. As the 12 step program says, hurt people hurt people.

I am deeply moved by the potential for compassion to bring healing. It enables us to break open the hard exterior to find a core as soft as velvet. I join a throng of people who ache to bring freedom to those still bound by anger and fear.