Distributing The Weight

I WAS MOVED BY our conversation last night. I understand how you feel the presence of suffering always in the background, juxtaposed against the peaceful times and moments of abundance we chance upon. I’ve felt this too and have come to sense that we all take turns in these places, and that it does no good for everyone to be suffering at once. When blessed to be well, we balance the world by being conduits of light for the time being, as long as we stay touchable.

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The ever-present call of compassion is to widen our circle and never close our hearts to those in need. This doesn’t substitute for helping others in real time. But when unable to help, our commitment to feeling blessed when we’re blessed adds light to the dark and distributes the weight of the world, as long as we let in the pain of others. When suffering myself, I’ve felt discarded by those who remain self-enclosed in their happiness, but I’ve also felt uplifted by the happiness of those who don’t forget those who are hurting. Their tenderness arrives like the sun warming me in my painful places.

The plight of the less fortunate is always with me. This awareness led me to write the poem on the facing page.