ANCORA IMPARO

“Let us be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true.”

—Fran Chan

(Source: raeanna, via two--drifters)

“Ask yourself this: Do you know the name of any one of the victims killed in the West Chemical and Fertilizer Company disaster? Do you know how many of them there were? Their ages, aspirations, what they looked like, whether they left behind children or what messages they last posted on Facebook? Do you know if there is an explanation yet for what caused the explosion? Or if investigators are still searching for one? You probably don’t know the answer to any of these questions, and I didn’t either until I started writing this article. I didn’t know that as of Sunday, April 21, four days after the explosion, officials have confirmed fourteen deaths, eleven of whom were first responders, and that as many as sixty people remain missing. I didn’t know the name Jerry Chapman, 25, who volunteered with the Abbot Fire Company and who, according to his girlfriend Gina Rodriguez, was training to be an EMT. I didn’t know the name Cody Dragoo, 50, who was both an employee of the fertilizer plant and a West firefighter (the town has an all-volunteer force). And I had never heard of West firefighter Morris Bridges, 41, who lived just a few doors down from the facility and whose 18-year-old son Brent Bridges stood on the porch as the blast that killed his father blew out the windows of their home.”

—Boston, West, Newtown: For Whom the Bells Toll, For Whom the Alarms Ring (via azspot)

(via azspot)

ramdassloveserveremember:

The way in which you are part of the web of life, of incarnation, is around the dimensions, you could call it, of compassion, suffering or dealing with suffering. That when you have a society that is built on the denial of other people’s suffering, for the myths of the society to be lived out, you have a very frightened society, and you have all the pathology that comes from fear.

I read this years ago and it completely changed my perception on my role as “caregiver” to wounded souls. It is the reason I can be at the bedside of dying friends and family without shying away or fighting the inevitability of them taking leave from their physical bodies. It is the reason that I can still get out of bed in the morning despite an ache in my core wishing for all beings to love one another and work together to create a peaceful planet.

I needed the reminder this week. Namaste, Ram Dass. Namaste.