Do you ever lay awake at nite, listening to the rain, safe in your bed, secure in your house and wonder about others who lay and listen to the rain as well?
A child soldier in Colombia who just fired a gun the first time that day; a woman in Congo who was raped earlier that evening; a sister who just lost her 5-year old brother in a bombing in Iraq; a woman in China who works in a factory and dreams of freedom and a large family; a man in Darfur whose family was slaughtered last week; a daughter in Canada who worries about her dad fighting in Afghanistan; a child prostitute in Thailand who will only have a brief reprieve; an overworked Japanese man who no longer has time for his family; your neighbour down the street who has just been beaten by his wife; a homeless woman in Toronto forced to sleep in a tent made of blankets; a boy in LA whose brother was shot in a gang fight; an immigrant fleeing from extreme poverty in Honduras laying in a field; a child living in a tin shack in the ghettos of Jamaica; a Muslim man who lays dying in an alley after being stabbed in Paris…
All who lay in what is their ‘bed’ for the nite…listening to the rain…wondering what tomorrow will bring.
Do you ever wonder about them?
I do.
(crossposted from my blog)
I really don’t have much more to say than that…
Yes. Things like that that keep me from a good night’s sleep. Though most of the folks I think about are children, here in the big wicked city. Those are the kids I can do a little about – not so possible to help the others except in very very tiny microscopically small movements. . .
I do too.
Though I wish sometimes that I didn’t so I could get some sleep. I would like to think that most parents who love their children, love them first just because they are children, not just their own. Loving a child that way makes it difficult not to feel for children around the world who suffer at the hands of adults. Whether abusers, pimps, or warlords. The same with our partners. How can you ignore what is happening all around? I can’t. And yet, it’s a monumental struggle to see to the safety and well being of my own micro world within these walls. And so, inevitably I suffer from guilt. Rightly or wrongly. Guilt first that in the big picture, things could be much worse for me and my family, so I shouldn’t complain so much. But most of all, guilt because theres little I can do to help others, beyond spreading what little kindness and help that I can.
I think that this is the curse, or blessing, of being a liberal. Caring so much.
Thanks Catnip
Catnip, and Super – what you can do and are doing, is being people who raise/teach/lead by example, other people – and your own kids, to become people who feel guilty when others suffer. That is something very important. Very, in my book.
Thank you, for being those people.
So many of us lay awake wondering about all the cruelty and suffering especially for the little ones. I find a modicum of comfort in believing that it is possible, on some unseen level, for that kind of love, to be transmitted from where it is felt, to where it is so desperately needed.
Just maybe it can carry with it a bit of comfort, or hope. Maybe, the more of us who feel this, are aware of feeling this, the stronger the overall flow of love and light will become, and someday there won’t be so many lost and suffering people left behind.
So maybe while we’re laying in the rain wondering, we ARE doing “somthing”, in addition to whatever we are trying to do to change things in our daytimes. I choose to believe this is so.
Thank you.
You and others have captured the spirit behind my words. As I wrote at my blog, if all someone can do is to be mindful of others, that’s enough. If one is in a position to act, that’s a bonus.
I also believe in that mystical phenomenon of inter-connectedness – an energy beyond words and actions.
(And I didn’t mean to cause anyone insomnia!)
🙂
Someone told me long ago there’s a calm before the storm,
I know; its been comin’ for some time.
When its over, so they say, it’ll rain a sunny day,
I know; shinin’ down like water.
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain
Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Yesterday, and days before, sun is cold and rain is hard,
I know; been that way for all my time.
’til forever, on it goes through the circle, fast and slow,
I know; it can’t stop, I wonder.
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain
Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Beautiful, Catnip.
Although, I share your thoughts, I haven’t had the blessing of rain over my head at in months.
Thanks for your thoughts.
I hear them all the time. Especially around the full moon when I know that the numbers of border crossers spike due to night visibility. I’m not worried about myself though, I’ll start worrying when I don’t care anymore. Thanks for always reminding me to think about others, catnip.