Seeking the Diamond

I’m at a bit of a loss for words this week.  In viewing the news of the world recently, I have decided for myself that it has been a bad week for humanity.   It has made me question some things. Things that my mind doesn’t have answers to.

Most times, I am able to pull back to a broader perspective, see the hidden gift, accept our human challenges, honor our highs and our lows, acknowledge our pain and suffering, accept our differences, allow our demons and distress, endure even our own destruction and death–celebrating the endless array of living that we engage in.

But this week was a hard one for me. It is always hard to see the children of our planet suffer the consequences of adult disconnect.

So, today when I cannot comfort myself with my own words, I take grateful refuge in the words of others. Words of two brave souls that endured far more than I could ever imagine.

So today, if I hug you tighter, hold onto your hand a smidgeon longer, or look through the galaxy of your eyes a bit deeper, know that I am searching.

I am searching for the Good that, I am certain, exists at the core of each one of us. And while it may be buried deep by our history, anger, despair, fear, and the distraction of our stories, I know it is there.

I have seen the vibrant diamond at our core with my own eyes and felt it’s potency with my heart. I have seen it in the sick, the dying, the cruel, the ignorant, the disenfranchised, the hopeless, the victim and the perpetrator. I’ve seen it in myself.

Thank you for letting me see it in you.

“It’s difficult in times like these:
ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us,
only to be crushed by grim reality.
It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals,
they seem so absurd and impractical.
Yet I cling to them because I still believe,
in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.
I simply can’t build my hopes
on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death.
I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too,
I feel the suffering of millions.
And yet, when I look up at the sky,
I somehow feel that this cruelty too shall end,
And that peace and tranquility
will return once again.”

Anne Frank

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Nelson Mandela