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3/27/2018 0 Comments empathy & its formit’s amazing what our eyes pick up when we pay attention to the people around us. it was a wake up call for me when my professor said to my class the other day, “we need to take care of each other.” i took that as, “i need to start paying attention.”
so, i dug out a small & simple grid-lined notebook to carry around, to write observations in. it’s sort of like scribbling down prayers on a smooth surface & hoping my incoherent thoughts & phrases make their way up to God’s throne. by making a conscious effort to pay closer attention to the people around me, i started to pick up on things my mind would’ve easily blown past, before. i watched how his hands pressed against the metal door frame as he leaned his head over top of them & shared about a little girl, unborn, yet already adored, who is fighting for her life in her mother’s womb. then i saw her fingers tighten their grip on the handle of her coffee mug when she shared more details about her and her sister’s relationship. & then i watched a group of girls wait their turn to embrace their friend who leaned against the wall, defeated. empathy is a word that has recently been on the forefront of my mind. i’ve been trying to give it form, trying to imagine what it would look like if it was given flesh. because in order to take care of each other, we need to empathize with one another. we need empathy to leave it’s arms constantly outstretched, ready at any time to embrace. we need our hearts willing to be tied to the person next to us by thick strands of total loyalty & unswerving love, so that when the weight of grief is thrown on the heart yours is chained to & it buckles then sinks, yours sinks, too. we need the courage to say to each other, “in this very moment, you don’t have to be more than you are. all that you are is wholeheartedly enough.” life is too short, too cruel, for us to spend it unaware & disengaged. we need to be with each other, make room for each other, sit in blank spaces & empty silences with each other, & let our joy fill small & large moments with each other. we need to remember that real love is never convenient, that empathy is never cheap & that the most worthy pursuit embodies itself this way, saying, “regardless of where your spirit rests, or soars, or sighs, or grieves, or sings, i wanna be there, too.”
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