Reflections about Mercy

Carol A. Hand

I ask you once again
Please join me
in the space where miracles
are still possible
All it will cost you
is the courage to see your own beauty
to embrace the strength you’ve earned
through suffering
to nurture the tenacity required
when you sometimes stand alone
although brokenhearted
as you witness others
waste their gifts and beauty
because of fear
Reach out to them anyway
because you know
miracles can
and do
happen
***
My grandson’s second spring. 2001

***

Note: This semester, teaching has helped me realize something I learned from many past teachers in my life. The importance of mercy. In times when I was lost, they reached out to help me find my strengths and beauty. I have often automatically done likewise with colleagues, staff and students in my own career. Now it’s something I do deliberately because I feel it is even more important to be merciful in mean-spirited, oppressive times such as these.

58 thoughts on “Reflections about Mercy”

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  3. Amen to that, Carol! And we’ve been granted another miracle in the mission to free our innocent men. One will be paroled before Christmas. Oh how I’ve learned many lessons through this lengthy and enormously slow process.

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    1. Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments, Joan. I am so grateful to hear about the newest development in your inspiring efforts to free people who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. ❤

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  9. “Love is the missing factor; there is a lack of affection, of warmth in relationship; and because we lack that love, that tenderness, that generosity, that mercy in relationship, we escape into mass action, which produces further confusion, further misery.” Jiddu Krishnamurti

    I ran across this quote a while back, and your poem reminded me of it. I am put to shame by your poem and this quote. I struggle to understand how those who have never shown any love, compassion or mercy for others, should somehow still be viewed with love, compassion and mercy. And yet, Carol, I also recognize that hatred and vengeance will never bring about anything but more havoc/destruction, pain and suffering for humanity and the creation.

    Perhaps, in the next life, if there be one, I can come to love and be compassionate like you, my mother, and a few others I have been blessed to know in this life?

    Thank you, Carol, for this reminder!

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    1. Ah, Dave, please don’t deify me! I, too, struggle when I have to deal with abusive folks in constructive ways. But I do try my best any way and keep trying to find the discipline to practice understanding and compassion …

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    1. Thank you for your always thoughtful comments, Paul. ❤ (And for sharing the same spelling of "own" that I always try to correct in what I write… 🙂 . I didn't your edit your comment because I find it endearingly.)

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  22. What a wonderful mantra Carol.
    This stoked my heart. Reflection points taken from this.
    Anyone can suffer. Not all can be courageous. It takes courage to be strong. So can one only become strong if they have suffered?
    Peace to you this day my friend.

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    1. Ah, Ray, you have raised such a profound question! is suffering the only path to strength? I have no idea what the answer might be for others… Thank you so much for your kind words and for sharing your thought-provoking observations! ❤

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