SUFFERING THE INSUFFERABLE

I have been thinking this morning about a brief exchange I had with a friend several years ago.  We had met for lunch, and as we took our seats in the restaurant, I exclaimed, "I'm starving."

She looked at me very seriously and said, “I have never been starving a day in my life." 

I felt suitably chastened for my hyperbole. 

Here are some things I have suffered in the course of my long life:

    Heartbreak

    Insomnia

    Depression

    Illness and physical pain

    The illness and physical pain of loved ones

    The death of loved ones

I mean in no way to downplay these, but today as I take in the horrors experienced by Israelis at the hands of Hamas and the terror being rained upon Palestinians by Israel, I am contemplating the fact that, whatever I may have suffered to date, I have always had a roof over my head, enough to eat, electricity (save for the occasional power outage), hot and cold running water, and the means to control the temperature in my home. 

So, no I have never experienced starvation.  I have also never had to flee my home.  Here are some other things I have never experienced:

     A rocket attack or any other devastation of life in a war zone  

     Forceable separation from loved ones

     Awaiting news of a loved one trapped in a war zone or awaiting news of a kidnapped loved one 

     Learning that a loved one has been killed by terrorists or rocket attacks                                         

In making this list, I am only too well-aware that there, but for fortune, go I. And as I have walked through this day, wrestling with the juxtaposition of my good fortune and the awfulness of this war, these lines from the poet William Stafford have been running through my head: 

    Your life you live by the light you find

    and follow it on as well as you can,

    carrying through darkness wherever you go

    your one little fire that will start again.

In my helplessness before the misery of others, Stafford’s words inspire me to raise this prayer: 

    May those who are suffering the insufferable find light.

    May we, who live in comfort, lift our lights high for those who cannot find their own.  

    And may we humans, at last, learn to live in peace before our folly leaves us all in darkness.

Photo by David Tomaseti on Unsplash

 

A PRAYER FOR CHALLENGING TIMES

When the world feels almost too broken to bear, I struggle to find hope, to not give in to inertia born of despair.  In times such as these, I find prayer and meditation to be a means of centering, a balm, a quieting that creates space for a rebirth of hope and courage. In this space, there is the possibility that an idea will arise, an idea of what I might do, in my small way, to foster peace, to bring comfort to those who need comforting.  

In this spirit, I offer a prayer, a meditation for challenging times.  

 

 

I pray for the body of the world.

I pray for the ten thousand things.

 

I pray for the brokenness of the world.

I pray for the eternal Tao.

 

I pray for those I love and those I cannot love.

I pray for those who have passed and those who are yet to come.

 

I pray for those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit.

I pray that they be healed, comforted, granted peace.   

 

I pray for the creatures who crawl, run, fly, climb, or swim.

I pray for the non-sentient, for they are energy after all.

 

I pray for plants and trees and all rooted things.

I pray for oceans, lakes, and rivers.

 

I pray for peace.

I pray for kindness.

I pray that justice might prevail. 

 

I pray

I pray

I pray.

 

 

                                                Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash