Tag: Compassion

Compassion, Train Tracks, and the Comment Section (+ I Have A Question) | Fourth Friday Fangirling

Less intro, more fangirling. Okay? Okay!

Let’s do this!

In this month’s FFFs, you have compassion, the comment section train, and train tracks. Oh! And I have a question for you at the end :D | Fourth Friday Fangirling

All Over the Blogosphere

Inspiration and Motivation – Valerie of This Vegan Life’s latest post, “Life is Actually Easy,” gave me an interesting perspective on the difference between inspiration and motivation. She also reintroduced me to meditation, which I’m thinking of doing again soon.

{About blog: This Vegan Life is a vegan lifestyle blog by Valerie Cody. Here, she shares not only scrumptious recipes for vegan peeps but also ways to have a more spiritually grounded life. I also love the vintage collage feel of her feature images.}

An Alternative RealityThrough sharing a fun fact about train tracks, Ellie of Ellie’s Blog wrote a thought-provoking post on tradition and how we generally lack the ability to step away from “what works” in “The Distance Between”. It’s brilliant and a must-read!

{About blog: Ellie’s Blog is a personal blog by Ellie, a 23-year-old from New Zealand. She writes about opinions, self-help, travel and poetry. Another great post you should check out of hers is “The Generation of Instant Gratification.” I know right??? You could already tell it’ll be a brilliant post 😀}

“Faith Crisis”In this absolutely amazing post by Kate of Aroused, “Faith Crisis,” Kate opened the door in my head as I thought about religion and politics and how we have lost faith to institutions.

{About blog: Aroused is a creative blog by Kate (aka calmkate. So that’s def not me) Not being biased because we’re namemates here, but her blog is a total gem. She shares photographs of beautiful everyday things and writes thought-provoking posts and poems like this one}

ReflectionA beautiful short story from My Life Online’s Becca, “A Personal Story” will definitely resonate to anyone who is struggling with accepting a part or parts of their selves. As someone with a low self-esteem and has an issue with self-confidence, this shook and moved me.

{About blog: My Life Online is a blog by Becca. She has now moved to a new blog, Becca and Beyond.}

All Over the Rest of the World

Nur HudaYou probably knew about this already because things like these get featured on news real quick. But anyway, in case you didn’t know: remember when authors got together to hold an auction for the victims of the devastating Grenfell Tower Fire? One of the authors who joined is the amazing Philip Pullman who pledged a named character for the second part of his upcoming book series, La Belle Sauvage. It’s an amazing lot to bid, right? Then one James Clements posted this:

James Clements bid on Authors for Grenfell

The response? An amazing comment train of people adding to Mr Clements’s initial bid. It was overwhelmingly good and I got teary-eyed just scrolling through the comments section.

Responding with Kindness In this Twitter thread by Sierra Abrams (@sierraiswriting) she shared a story on how she responded with kindness to a person who deserve it the least. It’s an inspiring story and worth the scrolling, trust me 😉

A Not So Perfect LifeI recently subscribed to Emma Gannon’s podcast, Ctrl Alt Delete. One of the first episodes I’ve read is Episode #58: Sophie Kinsella – A Not So Perfect Life. And being a HUGE Sophie Kinsella fan, I couldn’t just NOT listen to it. And I did not regret it one bit.

This episode talked about how social media has changed our lives and the emergence of our glamorous online lives. That, and Sophie Kinsella’s writing process. Which is interesting to listen. Plus *whispers* her accent and Emma’s accent are wonderfuuuuuul*

*yep, I’m still obsessing over accents. Not ashamed of it one bit.

What I Am All Over

Personal Achievement: I am so proud of this drawing that I finished editing for-web this month. I’m slowly trying to put more effort and attention into backgrounds plus I’m getting better at painting leaves 😀 Still have to work on painting flowers but celebrate the little victories! <3

Music: ラ・ム・ネ (ra-mu-ne) by Snail’s House (Such a happy music! Listen to it below)

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/248335820″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Poetry: “someplace silent” by Kiya of Flawed Silence (obviously not being a total fangirling unicorn here mehehe. PS Kiyaaaa I miss you, you wonderful unicorn youuu <3)

Photo:

I found this through Brain Pickings; made by Wendy MacNaughton and Courtney E. Martin. If you want a print, you can buy one through here. All proceeds will be donated to Hedgebrook, a rural writing residency for women.

So I Have A Question:

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. But I’m not really sure how many of y’all use Pinterest. So I’m going out on a limb here…

Would you like to join a Pinterest group board where you can discover new blogs and promote your latest blog posts?

I notice so many wonderful Pinterest-worthy blog images that go with all your amazing posts. And I kept thinking how totally amazing it would be if you could extend your reach to Pinterest. Also, hehe, I want to discover new blogs. I did all the blog-finding tricks up my sleeve—Twitter blog trains, searching for tags on Reader, other blog’s comment section… But I’ve discovered that my best way of discovering new blog is through Pinterest. Obviously, because I’m such a Pinning Wizard™.

Anyway, it’s just an idea that had been simmering in my mind for a while now. Let me know what you think! Or I’ll just crawl back to my cave of awkwardness.

Happy weekend, awesome peeps! <3

You Don’t Need to Understand

You Don't Need To Understand | I share another story and why I no longer think understanding others is what we need to be compassionate to others.

Story time.

As a kid, I was the scrawny, quiet one lurking in the corner. And I was often misunderstood. I guess even now, I still am hehe but I accept that now. Back then, it bothered me so much.

No one, not even my family, could ever get me and that was what made me upset most of the time. That they didn’t understand. At one point, the whining turned into a self-pitying excuse. “They don’t understand me. Why?” became “They don’t understand me. Why bother?”

I isolated myself from a lot of people. Not physically. But for a long time, in my mind, I was alone in the world. Only I understand me, that’s what I always thought. It all comes back to the whole “I don’t rely on others a lot” that I told you a few posts back.

Related: What I Learned from Pushing Too Far

Now I ache for the younger me. I feel sorry she had to see the world in such miserable lenses. But I also don’t want to be like her anymore.

Recently, I see so many people who are similar to younger Kate. Misunderstood and suffering alone and living in fear that nobody will understand them.

And I also see a lot of people who are too preoccupied with what they believe in, what they think are right and how things should be, that they don’t have space in their hearts or minds to see things in any other angle. Seeing these people clash against each other in a confusing mess, that familiar thought from my childhood resurfaces, if only they understood each other…

I had to stop myself. Because I realized now that the idea of people perfectly understanding each other? Sadly, that’s not possible.

You Don't Need To Understand | I share another story and why I no longer think understanding others is what we need to be compassionate to others.

See, there’s something I learned not too long ago.

Our experiences are our own. And so are our thoughts.

Okay, make that everything in our mind.

Everything in our mind is our own.

No matter how many people claimed to have similar experiences or ideas or thoughts that you have, these will never be exactly the same as yours. Kinda like how we have our own unique set of fingerprints, you know?

And that’s just how it is.

The reason why younger Kate’s grand ambition of Everyone Perfectly Understanding Each Other won’t ever come true is because we inherently can’t. We understand things in our own ways. And so we see and comprehend seemingly similar things differently.

So if completely understanding everyone is not possible, what will happen to us? Is a compassion to many people not possible, then?

Are we forever cursed to chaos and messes brought by misunderstanding and, ultimately, hatred? (That sounded like a line from a blurb of a YA fantasy lol)

The answer came to me in a form of a photo shared on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/camphalfblood/status/826197313278328832

Of course. Respect!

(Side note: I swear, I was tearing up when I read that letter. I had to stop myself because I was in the middle of a class at the time.)

I particularly love that line: “…they did not need to understand, but they did need to show respect.” Because in that one line, this anonymous teacher from Massachusetts, who wrote this letter to the amazing Uncle Rick, gave me the answer. And it’s so simple.

You don’t need to understand everyone. You don’t even need people to understand you. You just need to respect others, whoever they are and whatever circumstances they’re in.

Because that, my awesome and beautiful friends, is the best way to show compassion to people you don’t understand.

How will you show respect and compassion to a person today? 🙂

Have a passion-filled day, awesome peeps! <3

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