Just Like Me

Recently I received a huge coffee table book "Finding Grace: The Face of America's Homeless" from a friend.  On each page I discovered the face of one or two people who have been gently photographed at extremely close range. Their eyes worried, hoped, questioned, smiled, accused, surrendered, sparkled, and stared. 

I realized that some of the faces on those pages were life sized, not scaled down to fit the page, which is about 12" by 10." They reminded me of a little exercise (from loveandforgive.org) that my brother and I have been practicing to remind us to treat others with care. Whenever we find ourselves talking about someone, at the end of the sentence, we tag on the phrase "just like me."  

In the spirit of the "just like me" exercise, I took a page from that book, with the face of a woman about my age, and held it up to the mirror next to my face and said to myself, "just like me." 

Her eyes crinkled up at the corner, just like me.

She smiles, just like me.

She looks hopeful, just like me.

She looks tired, just like me.

She looks resilient, just like me.

She looks creative, just like me.

She needs to be wanted and cared for and loved, just like me.

I bet you can find someone just like you in this book or on the streets. 

The proceeds from this book go to the Finding Grace Homeless Initiative.

Thanks to Morton of Dallas for sending this poem from William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.