Vietnam 1992: Within The Cycles Of Reconciliation And Healing

From seeds to cultivation –

I am disturbed

by all the damage done,

then I remember

an American doctor

who I met

at an orphanage

in Saigon.

He returned,

a war veteran

who wanted

to give back

something

that was taken away,

but he found

he could not restore

anyone’s lost innocence

especially his own.

He reconciled himself

by caring for anyone

who was open to receive,

and gave even more

to those who were

so full of pain

they could not

embrace his help.

He found his only way to heal

was to return back to the land

that required healing –

it was the only act on Earth

that could restore a sense of balance

to replenish his humanity.

In his youth, during wartime,

he volunteered to participate

in the human rituals

of creation and destruction,

in the cycles of life and death.

Now, in peacetime,

he volunteers to participate

with the wounded

within the cycles of reconciliation and healing.


~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~
Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, 
for you never know how soon it will be too late …”

"Beautiful Friend" 

by Karin Lisa Atkinson

Location: Oromia near Sudan and Ethiopia border
The terraced valley of the Holy Caves of Miracle Healing Water,
Debre Libanos ደብረ፡ሊባኖስ Ethiopia, January 2006