How do we care for "the others"?

As I sit with my hunger, going through a week of eating a Syrian refugee ration, I can see more clearly the agitated parts of me.

The parts that crave sugar, chocolate, fruits, veggies, spices, juices, desserts, nuts, meat, eggs, fish.

The parts that want to get distracted to avoid me to feel the deeper underlying emotions that all this food numb for a moment.

The parts that rise in the silence only. Old thoughts. Old patterns. Old habits. Old memories.

The parts that want to cheat the challenge. To open my fridge and grab anything. To find reasons to stop.

The parts that judge me. And others. Who want to scream for help. For holding. For love. For care.

The parts that want to fight for more justice, for more peace, for more unity and for more love.

In the silence of my home, I start to dive more deeply in the reality of being hungry. Daily. Despite the very far away experience I am having, still with a home, a partner, a family, a country, a job, a future, and an end in sight of this challenging week.

I heard yesterday bombs were dropped in Syria. Refugees sunk in méditerranée while trying to reach Turkey. A concentration camp was going to be reopened in the US to place kids of refugees families. And today I read that the average American waste 1 pound of food daily. Daily.

I cannot not see the immense privilege of my life, our lives. Of all the abundance that surrounds me, us. But I also cannot not feel the pain of those in needs. Here and over there. Brothers and sisters who lost homes, countries, families, loved ones, and often hope.

I am reminded deeply of the prayer of Gratitude. The anchor in my life. The anchor that I can embody because I have food. Because I have a home. Because I am healthy. Because I am alive.

But what is left for those whom the only thing left is just to survive on a daily basis? I am seeing more clearly that what is left for them is way more than our prayers and "good thoughts". It is our concrete care, our active compassion, our support, our actions.

Because when we lost everything it is easy to lose hope and the only thing that is left are "the others", the sense of communion through a community.

My prayer and my actions are deepening. And that is feeding me beyond my hunger. Now there is a different type of hunger in me. That keeps growing years after years. A hunger for justice, for peace, for unity, and for love. And I pray that all my actions will keep aligning more and more with this service to others and the world.

❤️

Guillaume

PS: You can support me by encouraging comments, prayers, sharing this post AND visiting my Ration Challenge page: https://my.rationchallengeusa.org/shawiniganungaia