Looking through different eyes
I wrote this on December 8th, 2008, while looking at the sunrise out of a hotel room in Lusaka, Zambia — amid a global financial crash when western countries were cutting overseas aid budgets to shreds.
Notes — 4.30 am… 2008, Lusaka, Zambia.
Streaks of red start to appear on the horizon, no people yet, just the odd car or lorry drives past, their headlights remind me of our eyes rushing to see something elsewhere.
Maybe that’s what my eyes are used for I seem to rush from one experience to the next, always trying to get as much into the day to make myself feel more fulfilled.
What if I didn’t rush? What if I didn’t use the next meeting, mealtime, or thing to do as an excuse for not stopping to look into what I do to create meaning in my life.
I can’t tell what others see because I can’t see through their eyes — but I can make a decision to better understand their vantage point.
Today millions of our global neighbors are waking to see their children lying on a mat with flies crawling over their faces (it seems to me that even the flies are looking for something or somewhere to go).
I think back to one such neighbour — a mother I met yesterday in a township whose eyes will be filling with tears as shes worries about the lack of control she will have over her children’s destiny. Another dawn announces a day of emotions gushing back and forwards, as she asks herself — why me?
She asks, “why was I placed in this country at this time, in this house, this failing body”?!
Her worry turns to panic, and a sickening sense of dread embraces her soul with the realisation the western world might stop supplying her Antiretroviral drugs. Even though she is HIV positive, these simple A.R.V.’s help her live a purposeful life in the service of others.
Upon my departure, she had one thing to ask of me, “please tell your friends not to stop sending us these drugs or without them; my children will be orphans.”
This thought makes me feel sick, as I know a wave of national populism will occur in our world over the next ten years as politicians fill the void ‘of loss’ with the fear ‘of others’ and ensuring we all see folks who are different to us, as less important than our own children and loved ones.
Reflecting on our encounter in her beautiful home -It strikes me that she is observing the same sunrise as me, and in her reality she sees:
Evil drunken men walk by her window.
Rabid dogs are searching her streets for food.
A house that needs cleaning.
A breakfast that needs to be prepared.
A veranda that needs brushing.
Her childhood that seemed to be so different from her life in this new day.
She has lost more weight
Her bible, with highlighted verses that give her strength.
And I see:
Glimmering red streaks of dawn quickly giving way to bright orange sunlight that rushes to expel darkness and light up our world with a sense of magnificence and an infinite capacity to inspire hope.
March 2020
As billions of us wake up this morning to see the world through new eyes; I implore you to be mindful and help all your local, national and international neighbours.
#lovethyneighbour101
