the poor are always with us...

remember that saying? Well tonight as we were driving home and I was getting ready to come into work I was thinking about the people in the shelter. When we passed the prison, I thought of the people in there. Then I asked todd why it is that some people end up on the recieving end, while others of us end up on the service end. I remembered a girl from new life centers who had just recently gotten out of jail and then went to an eating disorder facility. why was it okay for her to be on the recieving end of these institutions? How is it that my coworkers and I only picture our selves on the service end? I wondered what it would be like to even entertain the idea of being on that side of things, and how did the other half of exsistence end up over there? But the poor are awlays with us, and even within us. . .

As I step back and think of myself as a whole, I realize the potential for me to cross to that side is there. Within us all is a light and dark, yin and yang. Each of us is capable of great and lowly. We are not disconnected from people on different paths, we are all connected in that we are made of the same potentials and in that we are all simply creative extentions of the infinite. That brings me a lot of peace and turmoil all at once.

Yet when I take even another step back and even another step back after that, I realize that this same patturn is manifested in all systems of life. You can see it in society, which is nothing more than a reflection of us. You can see it in the spirit of the earth itself and the the giant universe it is a small part in. It all thrives on it's oppisites: fall and spring, dessert and jungle, morning and night, light and dark, yin and yang.

and so the poor are always with us, because they are us. We are not as separate from anything as we would sometimes like to be. but i think instead of scaring me, this gives me a fresh perspective of my connection to those i deam my oppisites, and a stronger desire to find and cling to light and to help others do the same.