Real Charity

“Charity begins at home, but should not end there.” – Thomas Fuller

This whole time change thing has messed up my sleep cycle. My typical wake up time during the week is 5:30. I have to get up that early because my kids bus comes around 6:10, and I have to be at work around 7:30. In between 5:30 and 7:30, I find some time for myself to drink a cup of coffee and so some light writing. With the time change, my body is confused about when 5:30 is. My body keeps thinking that 4:30 is 5:30, so it is waking me up naturally. It is tempting to use this time and just scroll on social media. That doesn’t do me any good. So this morning, I decided to pick up my Kindle reader, and read my book until my alarm goes off.

Currently, I am reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Most people, when they hear the name C.S. Lewis, they think of the Chronicles of Narnia, but C.S. Lewis wrote several other great books. My son wanted to start reading C.S. Lewis’ other works, so I thought this would be a great place to start. Early this morning, I started reading his chapter on Charity. The main thing that stuck out to me about what he calls Christian Charity is that we do it out of duty, and not because we feel like it. He centers his idea around loving your neighbor as you love yourself. While we might not like ourselves at times, we still find ways to move on from when we make mistakes. We have to treat others the same way. This quote he said at the end of the chapter sums up the idea, “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbour; act as if you did.”. Real charity is caring about others even when we don’t feel like it.

A great way to show that you care about others is taking time to be out with them. That’s why I love doing street photography. It’s fun being out in the world and seeing all of the different people. It’s even more fun practicing street photography when you are in a new place. Last summer, the family and I took a cruise around the inside passage of Alaska. One of the places we visited was Skagway. We had tickets for a train ride later that day, so we spent the morning walking around town and checking out the sites. I primarily used my lens which I purchased from @retropiacam. The lens is made of a recycled disposable camera lens. It is super easy to use. All you do is attach it to your camera and snap away. It gives me photos a unique perspective and feel to them. Street photography in Alaksa is going to also have some incredible views in the background.