How My Granchildren’s prompts lifted my spirits
I have been in a writing slump for weeks. Each time I sit down to write, my grief at the violence and continued bombing in Palestine paralyzes me; my shock at the hypocrisy of the West and silence of the East shocks me. I say “What’s the point of writing?” The world is so screwed up. Even the International Court of Justice’s agreement that genocide is taking place has not slowed down the bombing raids on unarmed civilians and their whole livelihood and infrastructure. Decent human beings are beat by police if they march non-violently for peace and cease-fire. What happened to our world?
Then as if like a reminder from the heavens, my grandchildren visited me yesterday. It was such a wonderful visit after 2 months since I have been handicapped, and they made the effort despite their own challenges that very same day! And they brought a gift for me- a box of words on magnetic tiles to make poems on your fridge! What a sweet idea. To top it off, they left me their creation before they left for their own home (photo above). As I started reading them, I noticed how they awakened in me the desire to rise above, to reach for the sublime and the beautiful that still exists in the world, and how each of their creations will be a prompt for my writing for weeks to come! They are only 10 years and 8 years old, and they left me a treasure to reflect and write about. Here are some of their creations and what they prompted in me.
This is the best and resonated so loudly for me, as I am mending from a severe ankle injury! I have just started using a cane to walk and it is exhilarating and yes, I can laugh about health and the miracle of our bodies and how they heal! Every day I wonder how my brilliant surgeon reconstituted my foot and ankle and even lower leg- it is just incredible! I feel gratitude for the small victories I achieve, whether moving from crutch to cane, or driving again or finally walking a mile today. The therapists also amaze me with their patience, inspiration and little tidbits like: did you nerves grow 1 mm every day? How amazing!
I loved this as it reminded me to dream of a beautiful world above all this chaos and tragedy, and to reach out and touch it every day when I feel sad or down. A simple prompt can reawaken the spirit, I thought, and make it soar for there are no limits to how far it can soar! How can I live above the fray and detach from it, as Buddha or the Sufis teach us? It is what it is, so why not rise above?
What a beautiful reminder to always pray and manifest goodness and beauty by willing it and doing it, and asking for help from a higher power. Prayer indeed is my only solace these days. As I reach within to reach this higher power, to activate the union of billions of human spirits on earth who want to do good and who want peace! Millions are marching for peace and saying the system has to change and we need a real international rules based order, not one that is selective and biased.
Of course, this is the most touching of the prompts they created. How do we find the path to compassion and not dehumanize others to the point of hurting or extinguishing them altogether? Just when we thought genocide ended in 20th century, it appears again early in this new century. How do we find a path to empathy and compassion for all so the world could feel and be safer and saner and more beautiful?
A random rearrangement of words into phrases and sentences woke me up again to the beauty and creativity of language, humanity, and to continue to write again. These words will continue to dance and be rearranged on my fridge, helping me stay creative and focused on writing as a form of therapy and escape from our reality which is sheer horror in the Holy Land where all the faiths originated- such a bitter irony. Words touch our soul and reawaken it to sing again…thank you my darling grandkids- love ya and may you create a better world and a system that is fair and humane and just!
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