It is so hard to keep hope alive when you see the physical world crashing all around you. In recent few weeks, I have seen more people diagnosed as “eaten up with” cancer (as we say in the south). I have seen people with heart problems which are serious. I have seen people plunged into the depths of despair and grief. And that’s just people I know or know of. Then you have the little boy in Syria who was pulled from the rubble, and today a major earthquake in Rome.
Oh, floods in Louisiana. How could I forget that? I know people personally who lost everything. That brings me full circle to the little boy in Syria, his picture emblazoned across social media and probably every major newspaper and magazine by now. They said he didn’t cry or show emotion. That’s what happens when you become numb, pummeled with so much awfulness that you no longer have tears. It’s what you do to protect yourself from completely falling apart. And it’s dangerous in a world which already lacks empathy.
But what else can that poor little boy do? His city is being bombed daily, his family and friends are dying right in front of him, and people across the world don’t want to give his people refuge either because of their religion, skin color, or good old greed (you can’t have mine mentality). He has been stripped to nothing emotionally and it is likely that he will die soon. The physical death I mean, since he is probably emotionally dead already.
This little boy represents all of us. We are all dead in one aspect or another. Did I just mention that our world lacks empathy? That’s about as dead as you can get as a person. It means you are unfeeling, to lack empathy. You can or do not feel others pain and suffering, or joy for that matter. If that is so, how could you possibly feel your own? Rhetorical question…you cannot is the answer.
Yeah, it hurts to feel your own pain, and that of others. You may not be able to do anything possible to “fix” the issue causing you or another pain. But to understand and “get it” means that you can give them the love, respect, and space that they need to heal. Or you. I bet you, who is reading this now, needs to heal something. At least one thing.
I know that the anger being lashed out from everyone upon everything these days, is nothing more than hurt being expressed in the only way a person is able to at that moment. Ah, it hurts to feel that too. It hurts the recipients, and even though the perpetrators may not feel it at the time, somewhere deep down it hurts them too. Yes, words hurt. Please remember that next time you name call, label, exclude someone, etc. It hurts. Please, stop it.
I did not know what I was going to write today but I love how it flowed out. Please, give love and receive it today. If you can’t give it, at least try to receive it. Receive the smile a stranger throws your way, or the thank you that someone meekly says, barely audible, as you do something nice for them. Take it all the way down into your heart and feel it. It may change your life.
Special love and hugs today to A.D. and D.D. #MissingArcher and #LovingArcher
Hugs, Love, Blessings, Namaste, Nutsmaste, and I am so terribly #missingerin and #LovingErin
