In hopes of peace

I wanted to write something about Palestine but did not know how to start. Now the most recent Israeli aggression has stopped for the moment. Not directly connected, I’ve also learned a friend has passed away. Perhaps there’s really no way to sensitively, respectfully and sensibly broach the subject. More so than anything, I am filled with feelings of sadness and just a sense of feeling sorry. Not to someone or for something, but because bearing the hurt of the loss of a loved one, those that help us be and keep us standing, seems like an impossible task to undergo and for anyone to have to go through that is a throbbing thought, and I feel sorry that the world is so. To die before your parents, or to die in the face of injustices ugly look is not meant to be. During these times the sun only reinforces what is missing, and the moon obscures what is beautiful. However, I know as loved ones are torn away from my world, I can only give more to others and to truly cherish the relationships as fully as I can inhale, not because one day these relationships too may go, but because they are the language through which my life becomes meaningful. And the ones who have left us for now, your memories will grow old with us and our relationships will mature until we too are no more and become but a part of the train of history that arrives in the future.

I added a poem to fill the spaces I cannot reach.

Touched by an Angel

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Maya Angelou