Crying at dusk
doesn't stop us
from laughing at dawn;

and screaming with all our lungs
doesn't stop us
from loving with all we are;

All we humans have stories
and by the nature of life we're connected,
so let us choose to offer all
a first-lens of compassion.

About this Poem

In the heat of a moment, it becomes difficult to remember that the person opposite us is as human as we are. It's easy to extend grace to ourselves – after all, we know our story, how we got to this moment, all the complexities and paths that had to cross to create this exact intersection of time and emotion.

But that pain we feel, or that exuberance, or that fury, that is what binds us to this other human opposite us. We are connected through a thousand tiny stories, threads of lives-and-lives-and-lives. This understanding, when we cling to it, reminds us to give them compassion.