A Prayer

I'm not sure how I can sleep tonight after seeing images like this. How do I go about my "normal" life while so much of the world is in pain? These aren't just children in some war-stricken country... These are OUR children. 

I just spent the last hour watching television and live-tweeting from the safety of my warm and comfortable home, while my family next to me. Now I will get to go sleep in my soft bed while these innocent children, who did nothing wrong, are forced to flee their homeland after so much unimaginable pain and loss. Something feels so off. 

Why do some of us have privilege? 

What makes us special? 

What does "us" even mean? 

There is no us and them...there is just WE. And not until WE start to see the pain being inflicted on these children all over the world as OUR OWN pain will anything start to change. It's all fine and dandy to have success, to have money, fame and a beautiful life... 

There is nothing wrong with it and if you have it there is no need to feel guilty. But we can't forget that with success comes responsibility. A responsibility to actually DO something with it, to stop this seemingly endless cycle of hate, war and even more hate. To find solutions instead of dwelling in the drama of media, negativity, and trending hashtags that without sincerity and action don't change anything. 

There are blessings in every trial, every tribulation and every calamity even when it seems impossible to find. We must find the good, the hope, and the love in the rubble of the destruction we are ALL responsible for. We are one family. We are the leaves of one tree. The drops of one ocean.

Today, with a heavy heart I pray for all of humanity, even the terrorists. And for those of us who have been given privilege and open enough eyes to recognize we have it...

I ask you all to start looking for ways to do some good with what you/we have worked so hard for and been given. Because at the end of your life, the good you choose to do on this planet will more than likely be the only thing you can take with you.