We are never completely alone on this planet.
Everywhere we go, sooner or later we are guarranted to bump into someone else. And this is just within our human family... Someone who has a story, a family, a dream or a vision, laughter or tears in their eyes. We have so much to share and to offer each other. We have stories to share, laughter to rejoyce in, families and loved ones to live our lives with... And we have tears to cry when there is loss or pain. We cannot live our lives in isolation from each other - much as we may at times wish to. Our very differences can draw us together if we are willing to listen to each other's stories, and honour and respect each other's different lifestyles and choices. If we can give each other space to explore who we are, as an individual, as a member of our communites, and as communities within a greater whole - a planetry community.
We can learn from each other.
In this present time we are also experiencing rapid and intense change. We live our life at a speed unknown to the generations that came before us, and doing this, it is easy to forget the impact we can have on others far away. We don't see this within our day-to-day rushed lifestyle and it is easy to forget or push aside the stories we hear of poverty and loss. All too easy with our over-exposure to media, Aid requests and more... And yet, many of the very people whom we hear about as being the victims of "poverty" have lives rich with the very things those who rush around madly are lacking. Time, dance, song, community, living close to the earth....
There is a great deal we could still learn from and give to each other...
It is not enough for me that one benefits at the cost of another. For one to benefit, there must be a group benefit shared too. It is not enough for me to stick a band-aid over my conscience with infrequent donations. I want to know what I can do, in my own small way, to make a difference, somewhere, somehow...
With the understanding I have of energy, and the inter-connection of the web of energy that surrounds the planey I also know that any action taken here, affects another... The fair-trade coffee or the simple act of re-cycling...
I am selfish - I want to eat well, live well and feel good about doing so. I want to give back, even as I give to myself.
I care. Maybe too much, but I do care. And within this, I continually find myself asking what is my role, what is it that I have to share with others around me? What is it that I have within me to give back into the greater community around me, even as I live my day to day life?
This might be as simple as a smile.
I might be able to do no more than this.
It might be participating in a group project, building a school, creating a garden... This all depends on the needs and demands of where I find myself. And of the true needs of the community in which I might find myself. Not my percieved needs of what they might "lack". I have seen projects and people going in and giving what they themselves values - and it having no worth to the community to which they give, because it does not meet a real need. And I know some of my own limits too. I know one truth is that I cannot help, heal, or save anyone, other than myself.
Sometimes this breaks my heart.
But I can share my journey, and listen to yours - and together, if we are both willing, we might find common ground where all can be heard and seen. And in this space, we might find a way, together, to do something... to do something more.
There is so much sadness and pain in the lives around us. And at the same time, there is also such potential for joy and growth, and for caring about each other, and our journey's. When I look into a child's eyes, father recently lost to AIDS, mother struggling with TB and HIV, and still find a willingness to live life to the full, I am both heartsore - and inspired.
Heartsore, because living life to the full - wether it is a long or a short life, means that there will be pain and sadness and loss.
Inspired to keep going, no matter what. Because this is life.
The laughter, humour and value in each of us as individuals. And how, a child can affect a community to pull together and share the burden for those who are ill, dying or orphaned.
Within all this, I know instinctively that we each have a right to some basics - to feel safe in our homes, to have clean water, and fresh food, access to education - and a chance to live our dreams - whatever these might be. Not everyone is able to have access to these simple things.
Maybe some day, in the future, this will change. I wonder when and what it will take for our perceptions and expectations to choose to support this for the whole?
Each of us has such different perspectives and expectations - and each of these are based purely within our own experiences, shaped by the family we were born to, choices made and experiences gathered along the way. What is luxury for one is basic survival needs for another.
And this too is life.
The stories we dare to live and dream - and share when we are able to find common ground.