The Diamond of Compassion
by Sofia Colvin
If kindness is friendship, then compassion is kin—poet Shane Koyczan
We live in a time when deaths are just numbers. We live in a time when depression is seen as kids just looking for attention. We live in a time when people are killed for whom they love. We live in a time when our Earth is dying, but it seems that all people care about is what their favorite celebrity tweeted. We live in a time when six billion trees are cut down every 365 days. We live in a world where compassion is dying.
Dying, not dead. Compassion is harder to find, but it’s not gone. It’s like a diamond. A diamond is incredibly difficult to find, but not impossible. Like a diamond, compassion is beautiful, strong, and used to carve out our future. People are like diamonds. Even if you do not see it, you are a diamond as well.
Compassion is an act of bravery, daring to step away from the crowd, putting down your foot and doing something rather than being a bystander and watching something you know is wrong. The White Helmets who pull children out of the rubble in Syria are diamonds.
Compassion for the earth is compassion for ourselves. For what is humankind, but the art of nature? What is nature, but the art of the Earth? In killing our Earth, we are killing ourselves. The mass extinctions not seen since the dinosaurs 65 million years ago are just warnings. We say our water supply is infinite when every day more and more is deemed unusable and dumped as industrial waste, often never to be treated.
And yet, carbon emissions in America are decreasing rapidly. We’re down 10% from the peak values in 2007. We are slowly healing. The environmentalists who made that possible are diamonds. The activists fighting for human and animal rights alike are diamonds.
In taking the courage to let your compassion lead you, you help keep the scroll of our history from rolling up in a sudden ending. Compassion is the diamond-tipped pen with which we will continue our story.
Sofia Colvin is 12 years old and currently goes to school in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. She is half American and half German. In her free time, she's either reading, writing, playing with her dogs, or practicing an instrument of some sort. Sofia's all time favorite food is pasta, and her all time favorite movie is Peter Pan.
by Sofia Colvin
If kindness is friendship, then compassion is kin—poet Shane Koyczan
We live in a time when deaths are just numbers. We live in a time when depression is seen as kids just looking for attention. We live in a time when people are killed for whom they love. We live in a time when our Earth is dying, but it seems that all people care about is what their favorite celebrity tweeted. We live in a time when six billion trees are cut down every 365 days. We live in a world where compassion is dying.
Dying, not dead. Compassion is harder to find, but it’s not gone. It’s like a diamond. A diamond is incredibly difficult to find, but not impossible. Like a diamond, compassion is beautiful, strong, and used to carve out our future. People are like diamonds. Even if you do not see it, you are a diamond as well.
Compassion is an act of bravery, daring to step away from the crowd, putting down your foot and doing something rather than being a bystander and watching something you know is wrong. The White Helmets who pull children out of the rubble in Syria are diamonds.
Compassion for the earth is compassion for ourselves. For what is humankind, but the art of nature? What is nature, but the art of the Earth? In killing our Earth, we are killing ourselves. The mass extinctions not seen since the dinosaurs 65 million years ago are just warnings. We say our water supply is infinite when every day more and more is deemed unusable and dumped as industrial waste, often never to be treated.
And yet, carbon emissions in America are decreasing rapidly. We’re down 10% from the peak values in 2007. We are slowly healing. The environmentalists who made that possible are diamonds. The activists fighting for human and animal rights alike are diamonds.
In taking the courage to let your compassion lead you, you help keep the scroll of our history from rolling up in a sudden ending. Compassion is the diamond-tipped pen with which we will continue our story.
Sofia Colvin is 12 years old and currently goes to school in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. She is half American and half German. In her free time, she's either reading, writing, playing with her dogs, or practicing an instrument of some sort. Sofia's all time favorite food is pasta, and her all time favorite movie is Peter Pan.
