The Art Of Kindness

The art of kindness

The Girl Who Became an Olive Tree

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved the world and all its creatures with every fiber of her being. Her heart overflowed with compassion and empathy for every living thing. She felt the joy and pain of others as if they were her own, and she yearned to make a difference, to bring comfort and healing to those in need.

As she grew older, the weight of the world's sorrows began to bear down upon her slender shoulders. She witnessed the suffering of people and animals, the destruction of nature, and the endless conflicts that tore communities apart. Her tender heart, so full of love and concern, felt each wound as if it were inflicted upon her own soul.

Despite her best efforts to spread kindness and light, the young girl found herself overwhelmed by the magnitude of the world's troubles. The more she tried to help, the more she felt the pain of others seeping into her very core. Her once vibrant spirit began to dim, and her steps grew heavy with the burden of empathy.

One day, as she sat beneath an ancient olive tree, seeking solace from the chaos that surrounded her, a profound realization took root in her mind. She understood that the tree, with its gnarled trunk and reaching branches, stood tall and strong amidst the turmoil of the world. It did not involve itself in the affairs of others, but simply existed, growing slowly and steadily, deepening its roots into the earth.

In that moment, the girl made a decision. She would become like the olive tree, distancing herself from the cares of the world and focusing inward on her own growth. She closed her eyes and felt her body transform, her limbs lengthening and hardening into branches, her skin roughening into bark. She became the tree, standing firm and unmoving, no longer buffeted by the winds of sorrow and strife.

"A tree remains a tree," she said. "It doesn't experience everything. It's not to blame for anything. It's planted in the earth and stands still, deepening its roots..."But what she didn't know was that even as a tree, she never stopped feeling. Deep within her woody core, the love and compassion that had always defined her continued to pulse like sap through her veins. She may have taken the form of a tree, but her essence remained unchanged.

Only at night would she awaken and go swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. She was half girl, half tree, until she met a boy with the purest heart in the world. In the full moon, one could see that his heart's radiance was stronger than the moon itself. His innocent, wise, and kind-hearted gaze penetrated her eyes, allowing her to emerge from the self-imposed spell of defense and consider returning to life.

But instead of encouraging her to leave her tree form behind, he joined her as a tree by her side. They intertwined together into the biggest and strongest olive tree in the world, providing shade and solace for all. Upon its branches, countless peace doves cooed together, dispersing olive branches as all over the world.

Then, the laughter of children was heard from all directions, and a blend of languages woven together in delicate beauty, creating a stunning velvet ocean of coexistence. And the mighty intertwined olive tree? Stood at the center of it all, spreading love and empathy and gifting shadow and most delicious olives to the whole world till the very this day.

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Foxy: my collection of vintage fox imagery.

A Plea for Peace: End the Romanticization of Victimhood

Give Israelis and Palestinians a Chance for Coexistence

Content Warning: Mentions of violence and historical atrocities

For too long, people from the outside have romanticized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a gladiatorial arena, a reality show, or a competition of values. By romanticizing victimhood and choosing sides, you allow governments and dictators to stay in power. Your inconsistent support, favoring one side's victimhood over the other, makes it impossible for those of us, both Jews and Arabs, who want to live in peace to actually achieve that goal.

The West and East have chosen politicians on both sides who oppress the weak, buy warfare from them, and lack empathy. Yet for centuries, Jews and Arabs lived together peacefully in many areas, and there are still those among us who have never stopped hoping for that reality, even in the face of atrocities like the Nakba, Sabra and Shatila and many other horrendous crimes to the one side and bus bombings, rape crimes, and the horrific events of October 7th, where Jewish Arab supporters were slaughtered and burned alive on the other. Brainwashed-hurting-people are hurting people. By dehumanizing each side for its barbaric acts you leave them lonely and hurting, which leads to more extremism.

We are all being brainwashed, and as time goes on, more Jews and Arabs are losing hope, allowing pain and hatred to consume us, and enabling the rise of fanatic politicians who further fuel this cycle. But we are all just people who want to live. If the East and West truly wanted us to find a solution, they would invest in mutual education and acknowledgment of each nation's pain, helping us learn about our shared Semitic Abrahamic roots, rather than selling both of us more weapons.

Many Arabs in Israel-Palestine are not just our cousins, but our sisters and brothers. Not all Jews fled when the Romans came; some of them became Christian and then Muslim. Some of them are the Palestinians of today! And the other part is our closest cousins. Our DNA is so similar; there are no closer ethnicities in the world. The world plays savior while pushing us to fight harder, funding narratives of hate and promoting xenophobia and antisemitism on both sides.

We are all children of the same God, the last remaining Semitic peoples. Please, world, support new leadership on both sides! Invest in peace, not war. Give the Jews and Arabs who want peace a chance to achieve it. Strengthen us, and give the next generations of Semites a chance to live with dignity, compassion, respect, and mutual love.

Since the British Mandate pitted us against each other, as they did in India and Pakistan and so many other places, where colonial empires left the people to fight each other - "proving" the "barbarity of the locals" in comparison to the supremacy of the colonials, the biggest world powers have used our conflict to prove their own strength, choosing a side as if we were gladiators in a ring. Please, stop this game of money, power, and manipulation. No one should have to die anymore. Life is already too short! Palestinians and Israelis should be free together, from this war, from these separative beliefs, from the hatred, to live and move freely, to marry each other freely. To have one shared government that represents us all equally with dignity - with no more brainwashing and separation. This is what I pray for. No occupation nor any slaughter or rape of any kind. We should not fall into traps; if all people open their eyes, politicians lose their power. With the help of decent, honest allies from the world, this is achievable, slowly but surely. This should be the reality. Where all kids know both languages in an Arab-Jewish state, celebrating together, growing and then aging together with the deepest respect for all the mutual and all the unique, beautiful differences. Looking into Arabs' eyes, I see the eyes of my family members. You are not that different. I want peace with you .