serafaery: Archive

kneedull:

Rats, often anthropomorphized as greedy and selfish, may not be the callous, cartoon villains they are sometimes made out to be. A paper published today in Science demonstrates that the rodents will liberate trapped cage-mates — even when they have nothing to gain.

There is a growing body of research showing that animals respond to the emotions of others. But it wasn’t certain whether rats could suppress their own distress in order to aid another rat.

Lead author Peggy Mason, a neurobiologist at the University of Chicago, Illinois, thinks her work is a significant step towards settling this question. “This finding is the big kahuna — evidence that empathy motivates one individual to help another,” she says.

this is likely unsurprising to anyone who has ever had a pet rat. they are unbelievably intelligent, emotional, and each one has its own very distinct personality. having pet rats (8 over a period of about 4 years) was one of the most positively impacting experiences of my life. that rats take care of each other was clearly obvious to me in the time i had with my rats. i saw them defend each other (when one rat was drowsy after a medical procedure (yeah), another stood guard next to her, facing outward to defend her while she was defenseless), bring each other food when the other was sick, clean each other, and generally just be incredibly compassionate toward one another.

this was also true in how they reacted to me - very much like you would expect from a good pet dog. they could sense when i was upset, and come snuggle with me to comfort me. they were, very much, much more loving, forgiving and compassionate than any person i’ve known - including myself. it may seem silly or an overstatement to some people, but my rats taught me how to be a better person, and i often think of their example of kindness and love when considering how i can become more kind and loving myself.

(even in the subject of this very article, we could take a cue and learn from the kindness of these beautiful animals.)

(4 of my little buddies. they look like old men! they have no sense of personal space, and just sleep all over each other. <3 <3 <3 )

i love ratties.

Dec 31, 20117 notes

“If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.” —

bell hooks (via not-badforagirl)

there is a difference between needing outside validation, and just wanting to share existence with another person. i am exploring this boundary, as i’ve been too far on the self-defining side for far too long, and it led me to some horrible, horrible black dank dead ends.

Dec 31, 20111,698 notes

Dec 31, 2011266 notes

I finally have a glimmer, for the first time in months, of the way in which anger only hurts myself, and how forgiveness is the birthplace of true strength and self-preservation and wholeness.

I forgive. I love. I let go. I will not forget. I refuse to blame myself. People will find ways to hurt me no matter how scared I am, how much I refuse to expose myself. They will find ways. I have to learn to be okay with this. To know that I can endure the pain.

Dec 31, 20111 note

“Our tickets to the future are blank.”

Trigun

Dec 31, 20111 note

Dec 31, 2011761 notes

“There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death, in order to know how good life is to live.” —Edmund Dantes (via orientaltiger)

Dec 30, 2011389 notes

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Dec 30, 20117,964 notes

I forgive you.

People who sin say this: That they had to, to survive.
People who sin say this: That it’s too late to stop.
The shadow called sin hounds them steadily without a word.
Remorse and agony repeat, to finally end up at despair.
But sinners don’t know that if they turn around
there is a light, a light which keeps shining on them
ever so warmly.

Trigun.

Dec 30, 20110 notes

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Dec 30, 201172 notes

face crusted with drying tears. an insatiable desire to cut. it’s been almost a year, maybe. i won’t. stupid. lost. lost. lost.

this life is broken. do-over plz k thx.

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Dec 30, 201154 notes

“You might say, “What a dreadful day,” without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are. What is dreadful is your reaction, your inner resistance to it, and the emotion that is created by that resistance.” —Eckhart Tolle (via daemoninterioris)

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