They say there is a first time to anything in life......

Posted: March 24, 2011

When I started to think about writing a blog I was not really sure of why I should be doing it. However, I thought to myself that there are many issues that need our attention and should be spoken off, but I do not have the opportunity to speak my mind due to my busy schedule.

Therefore, when my teacher told us we should be doing this to improve our networking I said I might as well give it a chance.....
This is my first time trying to write a blog and I hope this will become my /your place to share an opinion and let out some of the knowledge, frustration, argument, "mantra", suggestion or anything that our heart wishes.

There were many interesting topic to discuss but I chose to address a video presented on the website "On BEING" by Krista Tippett (here is the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1074) . The video discussed the fact that this world is longing to bring compassion to life again.

It speaks about the fact that the media presents compassion many times as pity, as heroic people that you can never be like, examples of self-sacrifice that would seem to be too good to be true. Compassion means kindness, curiosity, empathy, generosity, beauty, and mystery. It is about looking for the face of good in suffering, in strangers. It is about tenderness. We should all remember to notice the signs to reality by listening to the power of the story and act on it. We all have the power to change the world and make this planet a better place to some people. In the first testament there is a saying “if you save one soul from the people of Israel it is as you save the whole world”.

I have been volunteering for many years now, in many different places. I believe every person who can should do some kind of volunteer work and look for ways to make this planet a better place. I am a graduate student in the Mental Health Counseling field and I think that by being in this profession should serve as a calling to help as many people as we can, even if we do not believe in the same god, we are all here to serve the same cause. Live and let live. Unfortunately it is hard to be compassionate to the people closest to us, but we have to be aware of it, and work haredr on it.

Krista Tippett (the founder of this website and speaker in the video) called compassion spiritual technology and asks humanity to make it a bigger part of the human race. I believe that by giving to society we are actually receiving back. We should educate our children and closed family and friends about the process of volunteering. As counselors we should promote this message with our clients and as a result they would get something back as well. We should be aware of the strengths and benefits of faith and spirituality especially in the 21dt century.

Being a Jewish person I find myself having to justify the behavior of the people in my country. As the media chooses to presents the situation is a certain way there is somewhat a twisted image of reality to the people in the United States. I was very sad to hear about what happened in Japan last week. However, nowhere in the news it was also mentioned that half of a family was murdered by a Palestinian man in cold blood the same day. A terrorist (perhaps 2), snuck into the Jewish community of Itamar, in the West Bank. There they broke into the home of Udi and Ruthie Fogel and stabbed them to death. They also cut the throat of his 4 month old infant daughter, one 4 years old, and an 11 years old. They missed one bedroom where two other Fogel children, were sleeping. (http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/community_remembers_the_fogel_family/17700)

There is hate in both sides of the argument, just like there is wish for peace. The main issue is the fact that many of the people representing the people in the Palestinian side are terrorists that you cannot negotiate with. I do not want to sound political at all, this is not my intention. I just wanted to open the eyes of others to the life of others in other parts of the world.