麻豆约拍

Good Morning.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I moved home for the first time in nearly 20 years. Research studies suggest that moving home is one of the top ten sources of stress in life, alongside divorce, bereavement and unemployment. I鈥檝e definitely noticed myself being more grumpy and anxious than usual, but I can hardly complain when we鈥檙e moving by choice to a house that was love at first sight.

Next week we鈥檒l be remembering the start of World War One, in which millions of Europeans were forcibly uprooted and displaced. And sadly the number of refugees and asylum seekers in the world has been going up ever since. At the end of last year, the United Nations calculated that over 45 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes . In Syria alone, over a million children have now become refugees.

The comparison between our situation and that of a refugee could hardly be more striking. While we got frustrated by the road works on the M3, they were dodging bullets and barbed wire, or risking their lives on overcrowded boats. We have an embarrassing quantity of crates and boxes to unpack, whereas a migrant is lucky to own one battered suitcase. And while we鈥檝e been given welcoming smiles, offers of help and even flowers by our new neighbours, displaced people are often greeted with suspicion and mistrust.

Why do we fail to open our hearts to people who are experiencing such extreme crisis and upheaval? Why this massive breakdown in kindness, empathy and compassion? Plato said: 鈥淏e kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle鈥�.聽聽 Let鈥檚 pray that each of us today can find some more kindness in our hearts for people who have lost their homes.