Can I Love?

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice

and often the good suffer

and often the wicked prosper,

and one hardly know which of this is the more annoying! (Bertrand Russell)

There is indeed suffering in the world

on this point Jesus and the Buddha agree

sick bodies

sick minds

sick souls

 

and there we are 

in the midst of it all

with our unique sickness

 

and yet, if everyone is sick

every one too is called to be a healer

we are all in need of healing

we are all

called to be healers

 

ah but there is a catch

healing is an act of "otherness"  

 

when we heal we live for others

with others

we must be outside ourselves......

 

sometimes I feel as if I am condemned 

to solitary confinement within the prison of my own ego (Sam Keen)

 

I look kind

I try to be kind

but my ego is a fortress

full of self

at times full of arrogance

and importance

but mostly just full of self

what will I gain?

what is in it for me?

who is for me?

who is against me?

 

there is ego war everywhere

 

sometimes I wonder

if I can ever escape

 

and just when I am ready to give up

the wind of God's Spirit

of love

blows through the window of my wintery fortress (thanks again to Sam Keen)

 

and I see

the pain in the face of a friend

the fear of that person lying in the hospital bed

the rank loneliness of the man whose wife has left him

 

and for the moment

if only for a moment 

my trapped ego is free

 

to reach out 

in love

and compassion

to be for 

and with

and heal