Flooding in Pakistan, What Does It Bring?

For many we started our day like any other.  We picked up the paper and read of horrific events that have captured the world’s attention.  Undeniably so they catapult us into action.  Some give to organizations that seem despondent in the face of such disasters.  Some give prayer and others give of their time and heed the call to a more direct form of action.  Others put the paper down and believe it has no affect on their world.  How wrong they are.

When we put the paper down, we put down more than a few pages of newsprint.  We put down the efforts of people just like you and I who reach out for a last gasp at life.  They gasp for physical life, we gasp for a life well led.  Is it so terrible an incident that we need to cover it up and get on with our day, or does it point to the fact that we cannot harness within ourselves the kindness to help another living being?  Which frightens us more?

Perhaps that is why the paper falls to the ground, not the overwhelming urge to move on with the day, but the fact that we dole out kindness with the same lack of enthusiasm and cohesion that we dole out our love.  Love and kindness go hand in hand, they feed each other.  Perhaps as you sit behind your computer in comfort, you wonder what the author of this article has done for any of these groups.  He has given to Doctors without borders USA Inc. Specifically for disaster relief for flood victims in Pakistan.  He did so through Guide Star Charity Check. (This is a complete, non-biased resource guide for most organizations around the world).  Here you can select, make anonymous donations and know that your contribution will reach those in need.  He also gives directly and regularly what he can to support SOS Children’s Villages Canada.  For every eligible donation by individual Canadians to Canadian registered charities like SOS Children’s Villages Canada, Canada will contribute an equivalent amount to the Pakistan Floods Relief Fund.

I urge you to do a similar gesture if you are able to.  There are millions of voices who share in the same plight, wondering where they will get there next meal from, let alone the quality of a decent night’s sleep that you and I take so effortlessly for granted in our comfortable surroundings.  The only thing that can comfort us is knowing we are not alone and are fully prepared to step out of that surrounding with the compassion required to help another soul.

Perhaps that means not spending a few dollars this week on lunch in the cafeteria, or a movie that you had planned on seeing, or the long list of sundry items that could either be postponed or altogether removed from your shopping list.  Will the world stop spinning if you leave these items for a week?  Your world won’t but their world might.  It will stop breathing in fact.  If ever there was a time to put into practice the words which fall upon these pages it is in times like these.  They aren’t to be saved as food for thought.  They are thought so that others will have food.  If we were ever deprived of any staples in our lives, would we not wonder what the world was doing in the face of such atrocities?

One little girl cries out for her mother.  She bears the mark of a soul left abandoned by the only one she counted on.  She is there in spirit, but for the time being this is not enough.  She bears the weight of the questions we ask ourselves.  I hear her voice.  We think we are not related, not connected but that little girl knows otherwise.  She too tends to a family.  A family of questions that remains unanswered for the better part of her tender life.  Let’s lengthen that life and show her the connection from this meager blog is one worthwhile.  For those of you who click on the above links and make a donation I applaud you.  For those that cannot, ask yourself why not?  And for those who seem stuck on the fence ask why the fence seems so high?  Climb over it carefully and learn that your suffering is no different than any other, except in how it plays out.  Suffering is suffering.  No one wants to do so needlessly.  Suffering of the soul comes in waves.  It washes over so many and its energy, its vibration is felt around the world.  We see it in the media, we feel it in our bones and we turn our head.  We turn away from the one source that could bring an end to a great deal of suffering.  The trials of others are indeed our trials.  We too wait for answers to bring to our home front.  For how can we ask for peace, love, forgiveness, silence and so forth if we are not willing to put into practice and participate with others who only request the same grace?

This is not an urge to compare notes on who gives and who does not.  There is always room for giving beyond borders, color, creed or pretense.