When You Wake

You wake in the morning to the sound of the alarm clock. You groan and want just five more minutes, snuggling into the depths of your warm bed. You finally get up and pop into the shower letting the hot steamy water roll over you as you pour you new body wash by Elizabeth Arden and lather the scent over you. You rinse and jump out to wrap in a big fluffy forty dollar towel. Run downstairs and pour a cup of espresso and hurry and drink your juice and gobble your pastry. Run and put on your designer dress and put on your makeup and put the hot rollers in your hair. You enjoy the sound of Vivaldi  that softly comes from the speakers. You brush out your hair and spray it and out the door to jump in your Lexus and head to work, where you enjoy your office with it’s 125,00 dollar view.

You wake in the morning to the sound of your child, whimpering in her sleep. You know the bad dreams she has from running from the soldiers and watching her Daddy being taken and beaten in front of her. You know she is also hungry and has only had a small handful of leaves, and some Mukheit berries that had soaked for three days in a little bit of water to remove the toxicity. Today, you must wake your child and prepare to search for  more leaves and hopefully some wild grass to at least make a little flour. You will try to get water without being shot or raped. Without life giving water you cannot eat the Mukheit berry or make flour into bread. You look out at the barren desert in front of you. You adjust the cloth about your face tighter to shield yourself from the scorching sun. Hopefully you can make a few more miles toward your goal of a refugee camp. If only you make it with yours and your child’s life.


The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people that are evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

                                            Albert Einstein

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
                                             Albert Einstein