A Lullaby for all of us.

trekker · 10-06-2006, 07:40 PM

I received this in an email today. I am putting it on all the forums I belong to. By the way this wasn't the title of the email...I changed it ....because this is how I feel....

"A woman I know, let's call her Dorothea, tells me a story.
Every evening she hears her neighbors' baby girl crying in the
apartment next to hers. The parents put the child to sleep alone in
the dark. The baby cries for a long time while the parents watch
television. The baby's desperate crying expresses all her anguish,
her solitude. What should Dorothea do? She is uncertain. Speaking
to the parents might makes things worse. She decides to sing. Just
as she can hear the baby, the baby can hear her. Every evening when
they put the baby to bed, Dorothea sings her sweet lullabies, talks
to her through thin walls, consoles and comforts her. The baby
hears the invisible friendly voice, stops crying and falls
peacefully asleep. The warmth of a stranger's voice has saved her
from the icy cold of loneliness."
~from "The Power of Kindness" by Piero Ferruci

We all yearn for the warmth of human contact, whether we are rich
or poor, young or old, our need for warmth is hardwired into our
being. And just like the baby, when loving human contact is
missing, we each, in our own way, make our plaintive cries in the
darkness of our loneliness. Fortunately, we each have within us the
ability to put an end to this human chill factor. We can do this
whenever we reach out to those around us; each time we sing a
lullaby or speak gently, or offer a reassuring smile, a tender touch
or even a simple look of understanding, our warmth is shared. This
is a basic human kindness in which we can all partake. And in a
world that tends to isolate and divide, it is also necessary for
our survival. It is the one kind of global warming we should all
encourage.