Awake?

 Each week Gypsy Mama chooses a word to write about for five minutes. No editing, stream of consciousness. Today's word is: Awake.


Awake?  I wonder...we go about our days busy with our own things & many of those day I wonder if I really am awake...or if others are.  Lately I've been feeling more & more awake to the misfortunes & devastations of others-people and animals.  I've had nights where I've been awake thinking that at that very moment while I'm awake in my own warm bed, someone is not. And I am fearful as to what they may be going through at that very moment...and I pray for them-nameless, faceless, unknown to me, but not to God.  Not to God...
And when I mention on facebook something to this affect, someone tells me that they go on fb for entertainment-not to be depressed.  And I am speechless.  Maybe that is why we're not awake-too much entertainment, too much not wanting to know about the plight of others: young girls sold into sexual slavery, babies aborted, children abused, dogs fighting to the death, horses who were once loved by people & trusted them in the kill chutes in a Mexican slaughterhouse where they are "humanely" slaughtered, dolphins rounded up & stabbed to death in Japan...
Yeah, it's overwhelming, I know.  It's easier not to be awake.  I guess I understand.  I'd like to block the horrors out, too, but I cannot for their sake.  Oh, God...Oh, God!