While @ the Princeville library yesterday, I magnetically and half without thinking picked up a book titled
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Vintage). I haven't been able to put it down.
The waterfall and river below the house I am staying in, typically a serene swimming hole, is raging millions of tons of water washing down from the Kauai mountains. A fitting show from nature that mirrors the sorrow and grief pouring out of me. And something else… enormous power and determination. Brute, raw force. So I read on.
I want to share this part of my journey with you. For those of you who know me, I am a bleeding heart and deeply sympathetic with those that suffer in poverty and oppression around the world. I feel a sense of responsibility to them as I view them as myself. However, up until now, that compassion has preferred to exist in somewhat of a blind state. Don't tell me the gory details, I'm squeamish.
If I learn about unjust suffering and I can do something about it, then I will. But typically I don't want to hear details like the statistic that there are 3+ million young girls (by young I mean 5, 6, 7 years old and up) that are enslaved as sex workers globally. I mean, I can't do much about it right? So why should I fill my mind with such depressing information?
There's been a change in me today as I started to just skim the introduction in this book, “Half the Sky”. I can't put the book down, despite the gut-wrenching, sorrow inducing stories within… there is also strength and real hope change can occur and I — we — can be a part of that. My higher self whispered in my ear, “I know it is painful, but read it anyway. Look anyway. See it and dive into the heart of it.” As I heed this instruction and swallow the atrocities that befall uneducated, poor girls and women globally, I feel the strength in me begin to pulse and beat as I realize that even in a torrential flood of sorrow, good can come.
I invite and encourage all my friends and associates to pick up this book and give it the time and attention it deserves. All you have to do is read it, and the rest will take care of itself.
