Youthful Life: X

"Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of you’re not alone.” Brene Brown I saw a tweet the other day that stopped me in my tracks and made my jaw drop. How could someone so succinctly summarize this seemingly convoluted concept I had rattling around in my head. She said, "Americans are really good at acute compassion, but pretty bad at chronic empathy. We without questions, haul strangers out a raging flood, give blood, give shelter. But we are lousy at legislating safe, sustainable communities, at eldercare, at accessible streets and buildings. It is the long-term work that makes the disasters less damaging. But we don't want to give to the needy, we want to save the endangered. We don't like being care workers, we want to be heroes. The world does not need more heroes.  We need more care." Sigrid Joy Ellis We struggle with sustained care. We want to ...

"Irrespective of age, we mourn for those loved and lost. Mourning is one of the  deepest expressions of pure love." Rusell M. Nelson Devastation , destruction, despair, and death - darkness looms, and depressive sentiments run rampant. The world seems so dark, decrepit, and dangerous. Well, it is, and it isn't. It all depends on our perspectives. Depending on who we are, the context with which we are able to exist and persist, and our positionality the world may or may not seem so bleak. Perception truly can be everything. Perception is reality. But is reality perception - or rather, whatever we declare it to be? More and more, as we are inundated with graphic images, grim news, and the gravitas that things are different for different people, this phenomenon of selective mourning has come about. That is the notion that we pick and choose what we mourn.  Don't get me wrong, in a practical sense, it makes sense that we feel more closely connected to certain ...