This World

I cried this morning.

I cried for a mother whose son stepped onto a bus, the flag on his sleeve the only colour on his khaki uniform. He is off to fight a war far away. Off to defend the freedom he is willing to give up his live for.

I cried for those for whom the earth shook in Northern India sending buildings crumbling to the ground and bodies to the morgue.

I cried for a man who poured gasoline on himself in a city in northern Greece because his debt cannot be repaid.

I cried and my heart felt sick and the sunshine cast mottled patterns of filigree shadow on the window.

I cried and a squirrel skittered along a branch of the apple tree, down the trunk and onto the grass where he gathered seeds from the feeder into his mouth before returning up the tree to a nest hidden somewhere in its depths.

I cried and a tiny chickadee sat on the edge of the fountain, ducking his tiny body in and out of the water. Drinking his fill.

I cried and Rubinstein played Chopin and Ellie lay on the bed beside me and sighed in her sleep, her paws twitching as she dreamt of chasing bunny rabbits through meadows of wildflowers fluttering in the wind.

I cried and the world kept turning. And wars kept raging and debts kept rising and lives kept ending.

I cried and flowers kept growing and ideas flourished and peace reigned and sun shone and water flowed and people laughed and tiny new borns were swaddled in love and disease ended and hunger stopped.

I cried this morning. I cried for this world, this beautiful heart sick world where death and sorrow and famine and sickness live side by side with beauty and joy and wonder and awe.

This world where mountains touch the sky and streams tumble all the way to the sea and rivers flow and gardens grow and deserts span the distance to the horizon.

This world, where people die and children are born and ideas take flight and people, people like you and me live our lives every day without ever knowing war or hardships so heavy we want to burn ourselves up.

This world, where every day wonder rises with the sun and the moon and the stars.

This world, so beautiful. So ugly. So real. So amazing.

I cried this morning and I knew my tears were a release, a letting go to free my heart to move with grace into that place where I can live this day in the one place I know I make a difference, in Love.