Photograph

Worn clothes hang from her thin frame.
Threadbare, mismatched, brightly colored, 
they are a contrast to the mask of grief on her face.
Furrowed brow. Life's toughest moments etched on her cheeks.
Her black hair, parted just where it has begun to gray,
hangs in braids at her shawl-wrapped shoulders.

I don't know her name
but this woman from Guatemala's Chimaltenango province
is cloaked with a humanity that I can relate to.
Her body bowed with resignation under the weight of her loss.
Eleven relatives washed away by Tropical Storm Agatha
Stomach protruding, she casts an unseeing glance down at the earth that took them.

A scene of destruction frozen in frame:
ravaged land, broken branches
The trees' vibrant shade of green seemingly mocks her despair
A haunting suggestion of the lives that once were there
In this quiet scene of grief, she is wholly removed from the chaos that ripples across the globe.
Right now, her shattered corner of existence is the only one that matters.

More than 1,700 miles away, a stranger grieves with her.

Photography by Ulises Rodriguez/EPA

Just another day?

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."  (Mother Teresa)

What is it about normalcy
that allows us to forget that we belong to one another?
Each day in which we're allowed
to sail from dawn to dusk without tragedy,
we ignore
trample upon
and bicker with each other.
We see only obstacles
or time thieves in each other.
We are offended if anyone should think differently than us --
and God forbid they express their opinion!

But when horror strikes --
as it did on September 11 --
we act as if we all breathe from the same pair of lungs.
We forget our petty disagreements
and differences.
We lean upon and
cling to one another
as lifesavers in a stormy sea.
Gone are our annoyances
with the challenges of living together.
We see our kindred spirit,
are reminded of our shared humanity,
and recognize that we do, in fact, belong to one another.

--July 2, 2008

Bite-sized inspiration

One comes to appreciate the reality that there can be no "wes" and "theys" in our lives, but only brothers and sisters -- all children of God -- all sacred and dignified. Destruction of any one of these God-gifts means a certain destruction of oneself and a mystery that is gone forever from this small fragile world.

--Martin Luther King, Jr.