For the World to Sneeze

A sneeze attack this morning that made me giggle and my little dog bark and dance around me. When the attack subsided I pondered the silence. Why does someone say "Bless you" when you sneeze? Is it the age old belief that you almost die, a prayer to keep evil spirits away? No one answer or superstition has been confirmed, but we do, instinctively a blessing for the other pops out. 

Closing my eyes, with a smile I whispered "Bless you." In the pause between the blessing to myself and my giggle, I wondered why we wait until that superstitious moment to bless another. I flashed back to my first experience on the Boston subways as a teen and the 13 years commuting during rush hour in California ("rush" hour is the epitome of a misnomer).  The sea of faces not looking at each other. I thought of the 22% of children living in US poverty, 1 in 4 women live in domestic violence as do over 3 million children. So many statistics, numbers and unseen people behind the numbers, just like commuters they pass by us unseen.  And I wondered if the world would change if at that moment, 2 billion of the 4 billion people on earth sneezed and the other 2 billion said "Bless you."

Layered plea

 I walked and begged the sweet Hands of Life to stop the forest fires, to quench the fire’s hunger and save the sweet earth.  Her sweet Hands changed my words and in my asking, asked back another question to me.  I heard my voice, my plea, whisper “quench the fire’s hunger not in punishment but in love.”  Nature is not arbitrary.  It is the nature of fire to burn.  To feel anger or worse towards the fire is to deny a part of nature herself. 

Please sweet Hands of Life, embrace the fire.  Quench the fire’s hunger not in punishment but in love.  Stop the scarring of the earth.  

Perhaps, in this prayer and meditation, teach me, to do likewise with the fires burning the sweet earth of my soul. And then to join you in Love's embrace.