Saturday, May 25, 2013

The Space Between

In 2010 CNN selected Narayanan Krishnan as one of it Heroes.  Krishnan is an extraordinary individual who willing traded a promising career as a chef to feed the homeless and forgotten in his hometown of Madurai, India (Watch video).  I'm captivated by Krishnan.  He makes love look simple.  He feeds the hungry.  He bathes the filthy.  He touches the untouchable.  There is a beauty in Krishnan's simplicity that awakens within me something long forgotten.  Deep in my bones a memory like a distant echo calls out, "You were made to create not destroy...You were made to give not take...You were made to love not hate."  

How I wish that echo could become the cry of my heart and the work of my hands, but there's a space between.  There's a space between "meant to be" and "want to be;" a space between intention and hope; a space between possibility and promise.  There's a space between and it is me.  Between the echo and my heart, the echo and my hands is a mess, a jumbled complex of ego, pride, and hubris; a debris field of hatred, lust, and selfishness.

People like Krishnan help me navigate the space between.  Their light penetrates the horizon of my darkness.  They illumine and outline the silhouette of what could be.  Their heart is my hope, and my hope is to one day have their heart.