The worst that could happen

When I was a young girl shopping with my step mother in NY I thought the worst that could happen was getting separated and lost among the crowds of shoppers. As a young mother I thought it might be going to jail. These things never happened. As a woman in my late fifties I found myself saying that the worst had happened and I lived through it, no fear. I lost my marriage and job and found myself saddled with demanding old parents and no income. But these are not the worst that could happen. Oh, no, not by a very long measure.

I live in a beautiful little place in a nice neighborhood. My children are healthy, I have some friends. The refrigerator is filled with good things to eat. Hennepin County has a fabulous library system and a program that keeps old people in their homes and healthy. I just took a shower in water that is piped to my condo, both cold and hot. My health is fine and If I am not happy, it is because I am focusing on a few blades of crabgrass in an otherwise verdant lawn.

In parts of this world women are stoned to death for adultery. Villagers walk miles to get water from suspect sources. Children go to sleep and wake up hungry as their parents are helpless to feed them. A huge population of children in Africa have lost their parents to AIDS and the lucky ones have a grandmother to raise them. Displaced people are roaming the earth looking for a safe shelter that they can call home. Brides are being burnt in India, yes, there is a whole long list to make one sad. In North Minneapolis a day doesn't seem to go by without a shooting incident of some kind. Call me Debby Downer if you must.

I truly do not know the answers for all the problems in this world. I know though that I must acknowledge the suffering. I can't say that a young woman cast out of her village for having a fistula is not my problem and since there is not much I can do about it I don't need to know about it. It seems to me that by appreciating my life, by seeing how very blessed I am, an energy is given me. By gaining perspective, I gain in compassion and understanding.  The Dalai Lama talks so much about compassion because it is only through that compassion we put ourselves in a mindset where we can work for the betterment of all. Today, I am striving for compassion and I hope I achieve some. Why not? What is the worst that can happen?