{"id":12688,"date":"2013-11-28T17:17:39","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T17:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/shivaninaik\/?p=69"},"modified":"2013-11-28T17:17:39","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T17:17:39","slug":"reflecting-on-life-love-compassion-and-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/reflecting-on-life-love-compassion-and-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on Life: Love, Compassion, and Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

November flew by quickly and December is just a few short days away.\u00a0 The year is ending quickly and 2014 will be here before we know it.\u00a0 The weather suddenly went from nice and warm to dreadfully cold in just a matter of weeks.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a sign that a typical cold Michigan winter is quickly approaching. \u00a0 None of this sounds appealing; however, I\u2019m still excited.\u00a0 It\u2019s not until the end of January that it will start to become ugly outside, but right now, it\u2019s quite beautiful.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m excited to see the first snowfall (the little drizzles of snow that we\u2019ve had so far don\u2019t count)!\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m excited to participate in some of the holiday festivities in Downtown<\/a> and Midtown<\/a> and also in the suburbs<\/a>.\u00a0 Overall, I\u2019m just excited for this season in the Detroit region as a whole.\u00a0 Detroit is beautiful, and I realize how blessed I am to be here right now.<\/p>\n

When I stop and think about it, though, I realize how much I have been given that many others do not have. \u00a0Many people from the Detroit neighborhoods, in other parts of this country, and elsewhere in the world don\u2019t have this luxury. \u00a0Think about it – look at what\u2019s happening both in Syria and in Egypt. \u00a0What about the poverty in India? \u00a0Africa? What about right here at home in Detroit<\/strong>?<\/em> \u00a0To people in these situations, the holidays will likely be just another day – nothing special. \u00a0In Detroit, step outside of more developed areas like Downtown and Midtown and into the neighborhoods, and the sight you will see will be completely different. \u00a0Things are pretty dreary in the neighborhoods and the holiday season over there is likely to be a bleak one. \u00a0At first glance, things look like a mess until you look deeper and realize that there is great potential if only the government would invest its resources into rebuilding and restructuring the neighborhoods and if we could find more people who truly cared. \u00a0I remember walking around the Brightmoor community of Detroit picking up trash for our Litterati service event with Carlos<\/a>, Fares<\/a>, and Rosie<\/a> just silently wondering why some people have to live this way while I have been given so much and thinking about how I can possibly make an impact.<\/p>\n

With the holiday season approaching, this time of year is starting to make me feel uneasy about myself, and rightfully so. \u00a0Honestly, most of us should be feeling uneasy about ourselves. \u00a0There\u2019s a question that comes to my mind time and time again, and more so lately. \u00a0If I were to die today, would I truly be able to say that I contributed to this world to the best of my ability? Did I give humanity my best shot?<\/i><\/b> \u00a0Honestly, the answer is no, probably not. \u00a0I\u2019ve contributed some, but definitely not to the best of my ability. \u00a0If most of us are honest with ourselves, the answer is probably no. To those who can truly say yes, I applaud you and keep up the good work, because the world needs more people like you.\u00a0 Obviously we can\u2019t fix all the problems in the world, but with both group and individual efforts, we can at least start lessening the negative effects of these problems. \u00a0Challenge Detroit has given me and all of the other fellows the opportunity to lessen the effects of some of these problems. I have been given the opportunity to make an impact on this amazing city that I\u2019ve fallen in love with all while making great new friends and actually feeling like I belong in the Detroit community. \u00a0For that, I am more than grateful.<\/p>\n

These are just some of the many thoughts that have been on my mind lately.\u00a0 2013 sent me through a bit of a rough patch, so I\u2019m going to spend the last month of this year just reflecting on myself, what I have learned so far, and how to become the person I want to be.\u00a0 Every struggle has been a blessing in disguise.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to end with this quote by Thomas Merton: \u201cOur job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy\u2026this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 <\/strong>Let\u2019s focus on making basic human love and compassion a part of our everyday lifestyle.\u00a0 \u00a0If we do this, I think we could see some phenomenal changes in Detroit and in the world.<\/p>\n

Happy Thanksgiving!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shivani Naik<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November flew by quickly and December is just a few short days away.\u00a0 The year is ending quickly and 2014 will be here before we know it.\u00a0 The weather suddenly went from nice and warm to dreadfully cold in just a matter of weeks.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a sign that a typical cold Michigan winter is quickly approaching. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}