Parrots at a zoo in Nanjing, China.

REUTERS

Sri Rosyati (R) and Sri Irianingsih (L), walk to the school they have run in a Jakarta slum area since 1996. The twins, from a typical middle-class background in Jakarta, have been the driving force behind the free education of more than 2,000 poor children. They have purchased the uniforms, textbooks, school equipment and everything else needed to teach the children. The twins have also helped open similar schools in 64 areas of the country.

REUTERS/Beawiharta

Muslim boys rest their heads on their desks during a language class at Al-Haramain madrassa at the Islamic Complex in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.

Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Sudanese refugee children press up against a fence in a refugee camp in Chad.

Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty

Every time we think we have touched a place of poverty, we will discover greater poverty beyond that place. Beyond physical poverty, there is mental poverty, beyond mental poverty, there is spiritual poverty, and beyond that there is nothing, nothing but mercy. - Henry Nouwen

A woman walks past merchandise on display at Mattel's

House of Barbie flagship store in Shanghai.

Aly Song/REUTERS

Daffodils in Parliament Square, London, as warm weather continues.

Stefan Rousseau/PA

Love

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Do not just come to our understanding, but enter our hearts -- our passions, emotions, and feelings -- and reveal your presence to us in our inmost being. Otherwise, we will keep clinging to people, things or events to find some warmth, some sense of belonging.

Compassion

There is much hidden suffering in the world: the suffering of a man who dwells with others in a room of metal cages; the suffering of a teenager who does not feel secure; the suffering of countless people who lack caring friends, satisfying work, a peaceful home, a safe neighborhood, clean water, adequate food; the suffering of millions who feel lonely and wonder if life is worth living.

Once we look downward - instead of upward - on the ladder of life, we see the pain of people wherever we go, and we hear the call of compassion wherever we are.

adapted from Henri Nouwen

Joy

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing - sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death - can take that love away.

Patterns XXXVIII

Laundry hanging outside a student dormitory in Wuhan, China.

Reuters

A worker sorts timber in Russia during temperatures of minus 25 degrees celsius (-13 F).

Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

Patterns XXXVII

Thousands of old taxis abandoned in a scrapyard, Chongqing, China.

AFP/Getty

Homeless tent city in California.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Rawalpindi, Pakistan: A family travelling by motorbike.

Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Patterns XXXVI

Beijing, China: Ushers look under the tables after delegates leave the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP

Giving = Happiness = Giving

A survey of 30,000 American households found that those who gave to charity were 43 percent more likely to say they were "very happy" about their lives than those who did not give. The survey doesn't show whether giving made people happy, or happy people were more likely to give, but the anecdotal evidence is strong that many people find that when they begin to give, they free themselves from the acquisitive treadmill and find new meaning and fulfillment in their lives.

Peter Singer, Newsweek, 3/09/09

A young Buddhist monk participates in a prayer for peace, prosperity and long life at the Ka-Nying Shedrup Ling monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP

Patterns XXXV

Workers on tractors harvest soybeans in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Photograph: Maurilio Cheli/AP

Patterns XXIV

A girl walks up stairs at the CeBIT computer fair, Hanover, Germany.

Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters

Children of sex workers take part in a rally ahead of International Sex Workers Day, Kolkata, India.

Parth Sanyal/Reuters

Patterns XXXIII

A skier carves out a new path in deep snow on a Black Forest hill, St Märgen, Germany.

Winfried Rothermel/AP

Runner-up, XII International Humanitarian Photographic Award "Medicos del Mundo": A man burns incense while sitting in a small cage in Hong Kong's Tai Kok Tsui district.

REUTERS/Victor Fraile

Buddhist monks take part in religious exercises at a monastery near Tongren, in China’s Qinghai province, on the eve of the traditional Tibetan new year.

Reinhard Krause/Reuters

Patterns XXXII

Job seekers holding umbrellas flock into a job fair in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Ow, that hurts!

An ascetic Buddhist monk runs through flames during the Nagatoro (Japan) fire festival, held to celebrate the coming of spring.

Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

A drawer of antique glass eyes is displayed at the Science Museum's Object Store in London.

Macdiarmid/Getty

Patterns XXXI

Men walk their bikes on a bridge during an annual 'car free' day in Bogota, Columbia.

Luis Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images

A jellyfish is irradiated with coloured light at the Blue Zoo in Beijing, a £18 million joint venture between China and New Zealand.

Diego Azubel/EPA

Hua Chi, a Chinese monk, has prayed on the same spot at a monastery near Tongren, Qinghai province, so long that his footprints are embedded in the floor.

Reuters

Patterns XXX

A woman walks the snow covered path along the National Mall in Washington March 2, 2009.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Filipino street children sleep in rows of large drainage pipes in the port city of Zamboanga, southern Philippines.

REUTERS/Stringer

Patterns XXIX

Iron ore piles at Parker Point, Dampier, Western Australia.

Christian Sprogoe /Rio Tinto Ltd/EPA

Members of The United States Marine Band listen as musician Stevie Wonder performs during a ceremony honoring him, for the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize, at the White House, February 25.

REUTERS/Jim Young