A song of salaam, shalom, paz, paix, peace

My range of emotions over the last few weeks in repsonse to world events, especially the last week, has been from anger to outrage to disgust to despair and back to anger more times than I care to admit.  Friday, after listening to reports on NPR and BBC World News about Israel and Gaza and Central African Republic and Ukraine and Syria and the US border (and on and on and on...), my frustration grew, and not just due to traffic.  But a song that has calmed and cheered me for years came to mind, and I couldn't shake it:

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

but other hearts in other lands are beating

with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,

and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;

but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,

and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,

a song of peace for their land and for mine.

Written in 1934 by Lloyd Stone, and set to the music "Finlandia" by Sibelius, my favorite version is by the Indigo Girls.

I realize that I am blessed in so many ways, and while the news each day angers and sickens and frustrates me, I also know that I have the luxury to express that anger and frustration from a place of safety and abundance and a deeper sense of equality and opportunity than many in the world get to experience.  My prayer this Sunday evening is that my rather comfortable life never erases my empathy for those who struggle in the places that frustrate and anger me, and that I remember that I have an obligation to speak up and speak out for a better world, "for their land and for mine."