View allAll Photos Tagged COMPASSION
Compassion.
Exposition (MAS, Antwerp, Belgium).
Portrait of Truycken Verbeeck with testament inscription (Paul Pourbus II, 16th century).
Compassion.
Exposition (MAS, Antwerp, Belgium).
Round glass window with the act of mercy (Antwerp, 19th century).
Compassion.
Exposition (MAS, Antwerp, Belgium).
Bread being distributed to the poor by David Vinckboons I (ca; 1600).
Logan, Utah.
Nathan Page, nurse's aide, of Eagle Pass, Maine is seen patiently feeding a nursing home inmate. While she tends to be difficult, he manages to calm her agitation at being confined.
Originally posted here on May 17, 2006:
Yesterday afternoon when I was leaving work, I witnessed some kids harassing a homeless man standing on the corner asking for money. The parents were nearby, talking to the concierge of the hotel next to my building. I stopped and watched for a few seconds, and then quietly told the kids to leave the man alone. They turned towards me and began saying, "He's a crack addict, he's a loser, he lives on the sidewalk" and numerous other taunts.
The parents finally walked over to see what was going on, and asked me why I was talking to their children.
"Your children are harassing this man," I told them.
"That man is begging in the street to buy booze and drugs," they told me. "You're no better than him if you try to take up for him."
The whole scene angered and saddened me.
"First of all, why are you wasting time arguing with me instead of focusing on what was happening? Your children were harassing a man in the street who had done nothing to them. I witnessed the whole thing."
"Why don't you just move along, bitch, and not tell me how to raise my children? And why don't you just let all these losers move in with you if you love them so much?"
I just shook my head and walked away, feeling myself starting to cry. As recently as Monday night, I listened while Maya Angelou spoke of how proud she was of the residents of Houston for opening their doors and hearts to so many Katrina victims. Yesterday, I witnessed the opposite: total lack of compassion for a fellow human being.
What kind of example are we setting for our children when we teach them intolerance?
Karen Armstrong, in accepting her 2008 TED Prize, has two things to say that I find very important to me these days. One is that compassion as expressed by the "golden rule" is common across all the major religions. Two is that our modern conception of belief as applied to religion is quite likely flawed.
Belief, which we make such a fuss about today, is only a very recent religious enthusiasm. It surfaced only in the West in about the 17th century. The word belief, itself, originally meant to love; to prize; to hold dear. In the 17th century it narrowed its focus [...] to mean an intellectual ascent to a set of propositions. Credo -- [i.e.,] I believe -- it did not mean I accept certain creedal articles of faith. It meant "I commit myself. I engage myself."This trip I took last weekend to Tijuana to help with the building of homes there for families who need but can't afford them was, in part, a test of Ms. Armstrong's statement.[...] So, if religion is not about believing things, what is it about? What I've found across the board is that religion is about behaving differently. Instead of deciding whether or not you believe in God, first you do something -- you behave in a committed way and then you begin to understand the truths of religion. And religious doctrines are meant to be summons to action. You only understand them when you put them into practice. -- Karen Armstrong
Those leaves in the crack revealed they had struggled to grow through the crack to reach surface to survive.
They thought once they reached the surface they could have a better life.
One who liked them, walked pass with a smile, and one who didn’t “see” them, step on them, ended their hopes and lives.
This photo was taken one night on a street when I was heading home after dinner. At the moment I photographed this photo, I thought of recently refugee crisis in Mediterranean.
People are dying and suffering, their homeland has became war field and they are fleeing continuously from war and conflict to European country. They struggle across the ocean on overcrowded boats seeking for shelter. Some survived, but some buried in the ocean.
I believe that every living beings have the desire to be happy and to overcome suffering. And this desire should be equal.
I believe that this is the hard time for the refugees, but also the time to test one’s compassion.
Act like the sun in love and compassion.
Act like a river in friendship and fraternity!
Act like the night in covering the faults of others!
Act like the soil in humility and selflessness
Act like dead one in anger and furry!
Either act in accordence with the way you look,
or look in accordance with the way you act!
RUMI
This dock channel leads out to the Halifax River. The largest marina in Daytona is downtown, on Beach Street. The Halifax Harbor Marina is where friends of mine live, and so I spend some time there now and then, watching the water, boats, and wildlife. The boating lifestyle isn't for everybody, but those who live on boats don't seem to want to exchange them for houses until they are too old to still have their sea legs!
This view is especially poignant for me, since a couple of weeks ago, my friends and I had just gotten back from a drive, and a photo shoot, when we heard the news that the man in the boat just behind the big one had been found dead by his girlfriend.
Before learning of his fate, I had been in a hurry to get home and get things organized for work the next morning. When something like this hits you, though, everything else fades into the background. We waited while the police finished up their reports, and for the medical examiner to arrive to determine cause of death. It was completely sobering, especially since just hours before, we had been having a quiet prayer meeting right about where this shot was taken, and we sensed nothing unusual, even though the man had been dead for hours, perhaps even a day or two.
Just before they wheeled his body down the dock, leaving for the morgue, where he would be autopsied, his traumatized lover, stunned and sobbing, made her way out to a waiting car, while two friends held her up so she wouldn't stumble and fall. I've only heard that kind of grief coming from a human being three times in my life. The first was at my highschool boyfriend's funeral after he died of leukemia, and his mother couldn't be consoled. The second was when my own mother died, and I was the grieving person left behind, and the third was that night. I cried for my dad when he passed, but we weren't that close, and it was nothing like that.
That woman's pain made me realize how precious life is, and how we should value others, but it also made me realize that certain situations leave people completely vulnerable and unprepared, and I'm not talking about just the grieving over a loved one. I'm talking about the complications that can arise after a loved one passes.
The lady whose boyfriend died, had never married him, or, I should say, he never married her. They lived on the boat together, and when he died suddenly, she not only found herself without a lover, but without a home! She had no legal right to the boat, and she had just lost her job, too! Thank goodness she had some good friends who came to her aid when she called! Now, she will have to live with family in another city. Her life is permanently disrupted and altered simply because they were not legally married.
Many of you on here know my religious beliefs. I am a born again Christian. (The term is redundant, since no true Christian ISN'T born again, but I use the term to denote that for me it is much more central to my life than for most. I'm not better, but perhaps a little more zealous than some.) Anyway, while morally I side with scripture on issues such as marriage being between a man and a woman, and know that sleeping around is considered wrong by God, I still can recognize a permanent couple when I see one, regardless of the legality. When people choose to make a life together, there should be some way to designate property, etc.
People I know would believe that this lady made her own bed, and now she must lie in it. While technically that is true, there's certainly no compassion coming from that perspective! She helped pay bills, and cook, and shared a life with her lover. His decision not to marry probably had its roots in bad relationships of the past, (who hasn't had those?!) and while the commitment was in his heart, it wasn't on paper.
We Christians can come across somewhat judgmental about our stand on moral issues. I don't judge. I know that I am far from sinless, and that I do plenty that could be judged by others, and by God! I DO feel that if a couple lives together monogomously, there should be some laws in place to protect things like property. I've been told that in many places, if an unmarried person is hospitalized, their partner can't even visit or receive updates simply because they're not married
Perhaps it's time to consider life partnership as a legal route to protect people with common law marriage and gay relationships. All I know is no matter if this couple was living "in sin" or not, I don't think that he would've wanted her to go through what she's going through now, and had he really thought ahead, might have at least taken some legal steps to ensure she wouldn't be left without a home after his death.
Life is complcated enough without having to suffer something like that on top of grieving for a loved one! Is there a way not to compromise one's faith and beliefs without becoming callous and judgmental? I think so. Love the sinner; hate the sin. On that Sunday night a couple of weeks ago, that phrase made more sense to me than it ever had before. We are all imperfect, and there's not one of us who hasn't done something wrong in our lives. Compassion rules.
NIDA grant recipient Dr. Hansel Tookes embraces IDEA participant Melissa in Miami, FL.
Credit: NIDA / Photographer: Sonya Revell
For more information on Harm Reduction, visit: nida.nih.gov/research-topics/harm-reduction