The waves of suffering have come to all.
Like tsunamis, some have covered
our fellow earth inhabitants
with destruction, loss, and death.
Others, with their foamy white unstoppable creepiness,
have smothered plans and hopes and dreams
of my nephew and my friend and my neighbor and me.
And then there are the others,
the little waves that come and go,
raising each one of us off our feet for a moment,
to give us a brief taste of our powerlessness.
Yet, when they place us back on the wet, soppy sand,
they remind us of the Divine power
within our presence here on earth.
Those little waves that come and go
push us toward the shore,
toward the place where we can walk,
where we can breathe,
where we can give and receive.
It is for each of us to know now
that once we arrive on the shore,
when placed on solid ground,
we have a choice:
we can run from the suffering to save ourselves,
or,
we can crouch down under the Cross of the world
and bear the burden together.