Reality Check

I live a life of two vastly different realities.  In one reality, all of my physical needs are met as well as many of my human desires.  I enjoy many luxuries—chocolate, coffee, hot showers.  I have the opportunity to travel the world and the opportunity to attend college.  Physically, I am in excellent health.  No matter where I am in life, I know that I have friends and family who will love and support me.  I am unimaginably loved, and every day I receive proof of this.

Then there is another reality that I also see every day.  In this reality, I see the corpse of a child that died an untimely death being wheeled out of a crumbling, smelly hospital.  I see a crippled man crawling on his hands across a street littered with garbage and shattered glass.  I see the hardened faces of orphaned children and desolate old people who have never truly been loved.  I hold my breath as I walk past the trees that reek of urine from being used as toilets and try not to be overwhelmed by the sorrow of realizing that the people surrounding me are in need of food, clothes, shelter, and love.  This is a reality I would rather not see because it is miserable, and honestly, it sucks.  It is a reality in which individuals strive for self-preservation at the expense of the rest of humanity.  If I were one to cry, I would sob every time I look out of my window.  Since I’m not, I take it all in; and then, I feel it.  I feel it deep in my heart.  I feel it until everything within me screams for a third reality.

 

It is time for a reality in which, I love my neighbors as myself.  As much as I strive to meet my needs and desires, I want to acknowledge and strive to meet the needs and desires of my neighbor.  They are equally precious, sacred, and valued.  There is too much hate, sickness, and pain in the world to multiply it. Instead, I want to cling to every ounce of love that I have been given and spread it.  It hurts too much to suffer and to watch others suffer.  Hate is never the answer.  I want to see even the hardest hearts melted and softened by love—beginning with mine.  Sure, I am just one person, and I can’t change the world.  Yet, if I can touch the person next to me with love, a new reality is discovered that I can live with.   Love is the only answer, and it is one that I am willing to die for.  It is time for me to begin sharing.  It is time for me to see the faces of those who suffer, feel their pain, and offer all that I have to offer.  Likewise, I must be willing to unveil myself before them and allow them to do the same for me.  This is the only way in which I can face my two realities.  The old has passed away; a new way has come.