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I read the email before me over and over. Then, for a long time, I just sat looking at the page. The words laying heaviest in me were, “i’m so sad, my friend just died because she gave up.”
People do not enslave other people to be mean to them.
People enslave other people for a profit.
People are not even a capital purchase item – they are an expendable commodity.
Kevin Bales, President and Co-Founder of Free the Slaves gave a TED talk in which he discusses how we can stop human trafficking if we look directly at the problem and understand how and why it exists everywhere in the world.
Watch this realistic plan for liberating the 27 million currently enslaved human beings.
The cost? It’s pretty achievable. It’s what Americans spend annually on snack foods.
And the cost includes antidotes that prevent re-enslavement.
Is it worth it?
Can you give up potato chips to help stop human slavery in your own back yard?
photo credit Niall Kennedy
I admit, I spend a whole lot of my time dealing with the ways that the world crashes around and about us all. I don’t have to, but it is the life I’ve chosen for myself. I love what I do, but it gets loud sometimes, deep inside me. It can resonate with a drumbeat compelling, intense and urgent. So, I have learned to give myself the ease of time with me. I am a pleasant companion, in part because I can smile and laugh at myself.
Usually, the place I go to get “far, far and away” is for a long, long walk. I stretch my long legs and just go and let the “Whew!” tell me when I’m done.
Today the wind was blowing the day around with a sense of fun that made me want to stay and play with them both. As I trampled through fallen eucalyptus tree branches and walked through open fields with patches of orange, violet-blue and white wildflowers I moved into a grassy field and there I saw my …… reminder.
I saw a moment counting….
There in that field was a dad with his two kids. One looked about five, the other, well, maybe 3 years old.
There they were.
Here was Dad teaching them how to get their kites up into the magic invisible rivers of air that would carry their wood and paper dream catchers aloft.
Then I was looking at those little ones, tiny bodies of energy and excitement that could not hold still for the thrill of the possibilities happening RIGHT THEN, in that very moment.
I stood and watched, a joyfully captive witness to a grand event to come; the whispers in the air told me so.
Suddenly, up went Batman!!
Up went Snoopy!
And amidst all the giggling, shrieking and laughing I realized I was applauding, tears rolling down my face.
Dad turned, beamed a grin of pride that seemed to paint his entire face with a brilliant light. And I knew that for all of us….. those moments counted for more than any of us would ever be able to properly put into words….but, I thought I would try……