75. Philippines Two

The friend that I'd written that letter to wrote me back today and I thought I'd share some of what he wrote. He is one of the wisest people I've ever met, and honestly, reading this letter has really helped me, so once again, I thought I'd share.

God sends us experiences I think in the hope that we will wake up and really allow ourselves to be touched by another person and their lives. It sounds like she needs a Friend and Hope more than anything else. It must be so hard to have to live a life as someone else doing something you despise. I can't imagine how alone that life would feel, without the knowledge that it's even 'worth it'. I'm sure you've helped enormously by just seeing and accepting her for who she is. Most of the people she meets probably use her and/or consider themselves morally superior to her. Condescension is a nasty weapon...


I hope you're feeling better than you did when you wrote me. Pray for the strength to see the pain and suffering in the world and still find hope; to share joy with the world around you. Remember to smile at your Shadow. Don't feel guilty for what you have. It's true that the wealth of the world is unfairly distributed and people suffer great harships while others (us) have amazing opportunites and resources. Guilt won't make it better. Guilt is just us serving our own woe-is-me ego needs. I'm learning that we need to have fun, and serve; to truly come alive and love; to leave the world better than we find it; and most importantly to just fucking reach out and touch another human being. We are social animals. We cannot survive without contact with another life, another being. In the space that you created together, she let you see the real her with all her joys and woes. You've been touched by her. And it's okay to fall apart from time to time and perhaps we can learn to pick ourselves back up (maybe not in the same order or pattern as before) and Serve something bigger. We are made in God's image, and honouring another person, being with them, maybe is service, is worship.

Do you see why I'm friends with this guy?