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Your body is woven
from the light of heaven.
Are you aware
that its purity and swiftness
is the envy of angels
and its courage
keeps even devils away
- Rumi
Artist unknown
When we are free, pain and sadness leave us, we are in our natural state of happiness, calmness, serenity and peace,
and our true home is made of love...
Photographer unknown
I keep thinking about the children. The families. The lost and the dispossessed. Exiled from home. Innocent refugees.
Caught in the crossfire of political and religious debacles.
Displaced due to unnatural disasters.
Emotionally and physically wounded and scarred, vulnerable and weary. Desperately needing shelter from the storm.
I pray they are held in loving arms and do not lose heart or hope.
Much of this world is in dire poverty and others live a life of relative ease. These are terrible discrepancies.
Too many children are living with very real anxiety and trauma caused by warfare, poverty, and violence.
When trauma is present, focus is gone. When focus is gone, the way forward is lost.
How do we help all our children make it through these incredibly difficult times and envision a better world for themselves and their children?
Video-Clip for the Hindu Mantra recorded by Dechen Shak-Dagsay, Tina Turner + Regula Curti for the album 'Children Beyond' released in 2011
We need to help them centre and strengthen their inner peace for the days they are living in now.
Whatever religion or spiritual path, yoga of the mind is always here for each and every child of our heart.
And they also need food.
And housing.
And love.
Photographer unknown
In a world that’s half starved, each child should have more than enough.
Without this there can be no true freedom.
For anyone.
Two Hmong children in Can Ty, Ha Giang province, Vietnam (2007)
We are fierce mother protectors of our children. We know after any fierce storms our children may suffer for some time.
As many as there are stars are the ways of our little children.
And we’re here to embrace them, to hold them, to soothe, and to listen.
Your child may fear separation from loved ones after any such storm.
Dark clouds and bad dreams may persist in their frightened mind.
They may withdraw to their room to cocoon for a time, or try to throw off their fears dressed in bravado and tears.
Their little heart may beat fast so we hold them close to calm their breath, and their heart to slow down with our own heart close to theirs.
It can take time for calm to return to their heart and mind and feel safe in their world once again.
So let’s throw out the war paint - and put on the peace paint!
.... And be a friend, don’t be a stranger !!....
Copyright 2013/2020 © Julie Von Nonveiller Cairnes. All rights reserved.
I first published many of these words on Facebook from 2013 onwards