One of the challenges as we experience emotionally charged events in our own or other's lives is to remain sensitive. Our tendency is to build up a shell, a thicker skin, for self preservation. We fear that if we lived all day every day with open hearts and open minds we might end up being hurt, going crazy (or crazier), or becoming ineffective because we find there is so much to be happy, sad, hopeless, hopeful, or just excited about that we just sit and spin.
So we smooth out the bumps, we eliminate the lows, and the highs, we live safe and sane lives. We tune out the bad news and with it the good. We become part of the huddled masses staring at our flickering screens in darkened rooms living lives of quiet desperation.
Not!!
It doesn't have to be that way. There is some good news or maybe it's Good News. You can find it in your local church, or synagogue, temple or mosque, in a book, or The Book, on the internet and sometimes on the radio, TV, or in magazines. You have to look a little harder - it's not as apparent as the exciting news of the day/week that's promoted in the mass media, but it's there.
When I wrote down the idea for this post, of remaining sensitive, I was thinking about people who rather than disengaging from real life, actually embrace it. They might be nurses or chaplains, social workers, doctors, or volunteers.
How do they remain sensitive?
I'm still trying to figure that out.
