Warmth of Human Hands

What am I going to write about this morning?  I usually start with a quote that inspires me and build on that but today I am empty. I go in for the free flow rant lol.  Brace yourself.

Feeling the Pain of the World

 I feel so "sensitive" the last couple of days.  I find myself feeling the pain of others so intensely...not necessarily their pain but the pain "I assume" they are feeling. I "sense" suffering all around me.  I hear about depression, addiction, and suicidal thoughts and my heart swells. I feel the "loneliness" maybe...as well as the boredom and discontent that is consuming our youth. There is trauma and pain lingering in the mental energy around me. 

I look out at the world and I see that people do not cope the way they used to...do not "connect" the way they used to and that is why...maybe...there is this perception of suffering. It just seems to be , for some reason, everywhere right now...filling my senses, my heart and my mind.  This awareness of suffering overwhelms me sometimes.  I feel helpless and hopeless not knowing how to make it better.  I retreat inward and become more reclusive in hopes that I can make it go away...at least from my awareness.  It is still there...needing to be heard.  My brothers are hurting.

 I watched the movie "Cardboard Boxer"  last evening...not a good choice if you are already feeling overwhelmed by the suffering of others going on around you but a beautifully done movie with the message of the importance of reaching out and connecting to others. 

I thought of Mother Teresa as I watched the movie...and how she went out to the streets of Calcutta to help the most destitute of people.  She fed them and clothed them ...yes...but what she wanted to do more than anything else is to let them know they were not alone.  She wanted them to feel the comfort of human compassion.  We can last a long time in destitution...physically... but what breaks the spirit is not the hunger pains or surviving the elements day after day without shelter...it is the loneliness. 

The movie depicted what Mother Teresa taught...it is "kindness" we need to offer more than anything else.  It is kindness that may be lacking and if administered in just the right dose...might be the remedy for the suffering the world is perceiving.  What do you think?

The following is an excerpt from, Where There is Love, There is God by Mother Teresa (2010; Doubleday)

Warmth of human Hands

 

One day I was walking down the streets of London and there was a man sitting, simply doubled up looking so lonely, so like a throw away.  And I went near him, and I took his hand  and I shook his hand and I asked him how he was. And he sat up and he said, oh, after long, long time I feel the warmth of a human hand. Long, long time. There he sat up, eyes are full of joy.  He was a different being just because there was a human hand that make him feel yes, you are somebody, somebody that I love.  This is something that we have in these terrible days of suffering, let us be that- the joy of loving.

All is well in my world!