It’s such a beautiful experience, moving through a crowd of gentle people, and then getting hooked on life, stretching out a hand and feeling the pulse of the Amazon, caressing the Andes and then making the leap from Tierra del Fuego to Cape Hope, gently cupping the Congo and pausing before merging into the thrum of Ethiopia. Stuck there, I reached across with the other hand and felt the rainforests of Southeast Asia, roamed over the Russian tundra, and then slowly squeezing inward around the pustule that is the Middle East, soaking it with the healing energy of life and love.
And later she said, hesitantly “It seems that it’s going to get worse.”
“I’m afraid that is what I see, too.”
With the air of one surrendering innocence, she hazarded “But it’s not going to affect people like us.”
I had to look away, trying to find a formulation that did not take air out of the joy she was sharing with me. “Well, in order to bring healing, we have to make a diagnosis. That means getting close enough to feel their pain.”
It’s the last hurrah of selfishness. It knows it, and so figures there’s nothing to lose.
As Matt Maher promises in “Hold Us Together”:
It’s waiting for you knocking at your door
In the moment of truth when your heart hits the floorAnd you’re on your knees
And love will hold us together
Make us a shelter to weather the storm
And I’ll be my brother’s keeper
So the whole world will know that we’re not alone
everdeepening 
Just read this again…”I’ll be my brother’s keeper.” Your responses are always made of love. There is great soul in your writing and being.
So many beautiful words to place at our disposal – they offer themselves to our service if we let ourselves steep in them, don’t they?
But thank-you for your affirmation. I wrote once that love doesn’t wait – it comes at the first moment that it is possible for its work to be done. There are times that I feel stretched thin like paper. It’s not always painful, just exhausting.
I met a pastor at a Unitarian Universalism Church who was literally wasting away from the exertion. I gave her a similar affirmation then, and it seemed to help. We need to stand guard in one another.
Yes, exhausting. Thank you Brian. ~ Sara