a world for all

I am deeply saddened by the anger and fright that seems to be all over our country in these difficult times. As if it were coming through our very pores, akin to the clammy sweat of fear. As I always asked the children with whom I worked, what kind of a world do you want to create? It is amazing how much everyone would agree. A world where children, families, countries could live without fear. Without fear of violence, of hunger, of having no one to care for you when you are ill or old or helpless. of not having every basic need met. A healthy happy world, in ourselves, our families, our communities, in the natural wonders of our planet...indeed, in our planet itself.

Imagine crafting our country into a community where we do not live in fear. How do we assure our children of a wonderful education, assure all our people of basic healthcare needs including sufficient food, assure our elderly of a safe and comfortable old age? How can we not have solved these things by this 21st century? There is so much fear.

I try to create fearlessness where I can. I try to make a difference every day. I learned from my mother that everyone you meet is worthy of kindness. For me that manifests in looking people in the eye and asking how they are, from friends and family to the checkout person at any store to the homeless person on the street. I try to create fearlessness when I work with groups, no matter what age. I try to create a fear-free environment when I bring groups of different cultures together.

Having chronic illness has gotten in the way of my plans to expand on this work. A "time-out" I had not earned or planned. There was a time I believed that everything happened for a reason. Now that I am an apprentice crone I would say that whatever happens, you might as well learn the most from it. Perhaps there is an order at play, but randomness is also at play in the universe. Perhaps we will never know which is which. Perhaps that is the reason for randomness. To assure that we will never know. I am at peace with not knowing. It is exciting to me most of the time, frustrating and even frightening once in a while.

So I have tried to glean as much wisdom as I could over these past 11 years of illness. I have known fear and frustration I had never before dreamed. I have known utter joy. I am glad to be here. That is what I want for every living thing. The joy of being.

Now, in my winding way with which I have learned to be comfortable since a tick bite changed the landscape of my brain, I am back to the beginning of this post. I do not want to debate the whys and whats and wherefores, I just want to create...a better world. (Whoah, that almost takes me back to the Johnathan Livingston Seagull era...yikes!)