n. the
realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as
your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and
inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an
anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of
other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only
once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic
passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk
"The stories we walk by"
I read this comment once on one of HONY's images, and it's a sentiment that has stuck with me.
Every human has a story. One we cannot even begin to know or understand.
Every time we meet someone or simply walk by. Our mind fills with these assumptions, projections. We think we see them, know who they are. But we have no idea.
Traveling to a different community, a different country, a different culture, this has become more and more clear. All over the world, every sentient being is living a life that is uniquely their own.
Though we can't ever fully understand others stories, there is a beauty in trying, in making connections. The most cherished thing I gain from my travels is always the connections I make. I truly believe we meet people for a reason and that we are all interconnected on a much deeper level.
No matter how far I travel despite the
vast difference in cultures and lifestyles and the diversity between two unique people, there is so much similarity. Walk in any city and you can see it. The way a mother smiles at her child, the way a dog
looks at you with pleading eyes, the wisdom of a grandmothers eyes, each wrinkle, another line in
her story.
But it's a story we can never fully know, at least not just by looking at her. We can try to understand, to have compassion, to have empathy.
It doesn’t matter where we are. We are all sentient beings. We are all
beautiful.
Trough giving back.
Realizing empathy.
Seeing the similarity in all of us.
Through understanding.
Through being.
There is always room for love.
Namaste
The light within me bows to the light within you