How many times have we been in the background of someone else's picture?

How many times have we been in the background of someone else's picture?

That we were someone else's stranger.

We rarely think of ourselves that way — but to most people we've crossed paths with, that's exactly what we were.

And over the course of a life, we've likely been on both sides of almost everything.

We've been heartbroken and the one who broke a heart envied and the one who envied wronged and at times the wrongdoer judged and the one doing the judging someone's hero someone's villain

Not always with the same person. But the full picture tends to find us.

Maybe that's part of what life is doing — giving us enough angles to find our way toward compassion.

For others. And for ourselves.

Because once you've stood on both sides, a stranger stops looking quite so different from you.