{"id":1605,"date":"2013-02-20T22:53:46","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T03:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2013-02-20T22:53:46","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T03:53:46","slug":"free-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/free-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"free empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2031<\/a>P<\/span>erhaps it was his eyes:\u00a0 the kindness there, the depth of his gaze.\u00a0 Or maybe it was the quality of his listening, the way he seemed to hear with his whole body, leaning in to catch every word.\u00a0\u00a0 His lined face held no judgment, no impatience or tension or hint of boredom.\u00a0 Nothing but love.\u00a0 Waves of people surged by on the busy sidewalk, laughing and chatting, but his attention never wavered from the young woman who sat across the table from him, pouring out her tale.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty he sure he didn\u2019t even notice me when I paused, and then hesitated before snapping my photo, uncertain about intruding on this very public and yet strangely intimate exchange.<\/p>\n

Home at last from two weeks on the west coast, I find myself\u00a0 still thinking abut this man who sits at a card table on the bustling, hippest street in Santa Cruz and \u00a0open-heartedly gives himself away.<\/p>\n

\u201cFree Empathy\u201d his sign says. \u00a0And, indeed, there is not so much as a cup or a hat or a money box in sight, no way for anyone to pay for his compassion even if they wanted to.<\/p>\n

Free empathy.\u00a0 I wonder if there is any greater gift, any exchange between two people, that could be more valuable than this?<\/p>\n

Free empathy.\u00a0 Nothing less than an offer of refuge, of rest, of acceptance: you are safe here, and you are ok, just as you are.<\/p>\n

Free empathy.\u00a0 A promise to bear loving witness to another\u2019s struggle.<\/p>\n

Free empathy.\u00a0 A reminder that we won\u2019t save the world with big gestures or grand schemes, but by becoming better listeners. \u00a0By asking how someone else is doing, and then taking time enough to put ourselves in their shoes, to see the world through their eyes.<\/p>\n

Free empathy.\u00a0 One precious natural resource that is endlessly renewable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it was his eyes:\u00a0 the kindness there, the depth of his gaze.\u00a0 Or maybe it was the quality of his listening, the way he seemed to hear with his whole body, leaning in to catch every word.\u00a0\u00a0 His lined face held no judgment, no impatience or tension or hint of boredom.\u00a0 Nothing but love.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-compassion","8":"category-soul-work","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}