At a time when I needed some medical care in hospital, I read words translated from Aramaic. ‘Blessed are those whose passion is sparked by deep, abiding purpose.’
I was being treated by a specialist who put his whole focus on curing me. He is thorough and persistent. There is no doubt that he understands that his purpose is to be a healer.
Among my circle of friends and family there are those who are generous and caring; they are lovers. There are those who listen deeply and bring people into community; they are peacemakers. There are those who recognize injustice, call it out, and work for change; they are prophets. There are those who see the Creator in all of creation; they are mystics.
There are seeds of justice, love, healing and peace everywhere.
;Enough of this; I could be writing stories.
- When I first met a young nurse running a Birthing Centre in a bamboo shelter on the Thai Cambodia border in the dark time of war, I was struck by her respect and compassion; the young mothers had survived the terrible Khmer Rouge times, now she would nurse them. Some years later I met Theary again; she was a health worker for remote Cambodian villages. Once, while alone, she came face to face with a man she recognised as a Khmer Rouge torturer. They gazed at each other without speaking a word, but he certainly knew that he was recognised. She froze with terror. If his secret was known, he would be lynched. He was ruthless and cornered. But she was a nurse, and he was ill. She swallowed her fear and treated him as she treated any other patient. She understood his guilt. She cared for him until he died with dignity.
- We met the Dali Lama in Dharamshala and gave him a Krama from Cambodia. He hooted with laughter. His listening was warm … do what you can … be peace. In Tibet a few days later we sat with a group of young men who told of finding an AK47. They put this fully armed weapon on the table and discussed the dilemma that it posed. They could use it for protection, but of one accord they pledged to non-violence. They dismantled it and destroyed the pieces. Peaceful protest, with all its dire dangers, was their way to peace. In our woolen socks inside our heavy shoes, we had carried spools of the Dali Lama’s recent calls for the peaceful way. These we offered as our gifts to them. The spirit of the Dali Lama was firmly held in these parts.
- I listen to my First Nation friends, too numerous to name. The same message comes from each of their nations. We call on all Australian to walk with us to a better future. In Uluru statement they wrote, ‘This … is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors’. There is something here that is beyond translation to English … a way of living, a way of being on this land. This year of 2023 will be a response to this invitation.
My life, already long, has constantly taken me to close to women and men of passion and purpose. Theirs are stories of justice, love, healing and peace. Goodness persists. In this year of 2023, in the spirit of the Uluru Statement, there is an opportunity for conversation about Australia’s nationhood. Bring it on!
‘Blessed are those whose passion is sparked by deep, abiding purpose.’
Stories and Musings 