The Philippines

Somehow it doesn’t seem real. It’s a half world away. We watch the pictures of destruction in disbelief and see rescurers digging for loved ones in collapsed buldings. We see that far away look in those we show on camera. We report the dead in rising numbers, not names. We can repair buildings, and roads, but the bodies that held the names are gone forever.   

All we can do is embrace the Philippine people in our hearts and send relief supplies and prayers.  Grief is such a painful personal hurt. Sorrow is more universal in its heartache, for it acknowledges on a higher level the collective loss to humankind. How many of the dead bodies were potential scientists, poets, leaders or the pure simple souls who teach us love by just being.

Empathy is not only the capacity to understand another’s feelings, it is the willingness to comfort, to cry together and to share the strength of hope when so many, see nothing but despair.  Hope lets those who hurt know they have not been forgotten by a loving spirit and a collective world as it manifests itself through a helping hand, a bottle of water, a hug or a shared tear.