My heart is breaking.

My son is three years old. As I am writing this he is napping comfortably.

From my office I hear little cat like snores coming from his room. We just had a lovely morning of buying bread at the local bakery and playing at the park.

A moment ago I watched a handful of videos about Aylan, the 3 year old would be Turkish refugee, who drowned along with his Mother and Brother a few days ago.

I’d been avoiding the photo every time if popped up on social media. I knew it would hit too close to home.

In the photo that has gone viral Aylan is lying on the beach in the same position that my son is lying in his bed. I am sure that I am not the only parent who sees similarities in their child.

The big difference is that his parents had a life situation that was awful enough that they chose to get on an overcrowded boat with their children having no guarantee of safety or survival.

I suffer with the stress of building a career as a creative entrepreneur, paying the bills on time or close to it, keeping my son in an ideal school, making time for date nights with my partner, and finding time to catch up with my girlfriends.

People in other parts of the world suffer with the pain of genocide, random drone strikes, rape as punishment, sexual slavery, and near constant war.

People in my adopted hometown of Charleston, SC suffer from obvious and hidden racism, poverty and domestic violence. Instead of helping the homeless on our street corners we are passing ordinances that make giving them money or food from our cars illegal.

We talk about pain and suffering a lot in the yoga and meditation world. We talk about how suffering is relative. I get that, but to me the suffering that certain groups of people are enduring on a daily basis seems astounding. 

I don’t know what to do with the pain of my emotions when I hear about these stories or see these images.

I do know that running away by looking away, turning off the radio, thinking about something else, and not talking about it isn’t the answer.

We can’t wait until we know what the best thing to do is to do something. 

If we do that we won’t do anything. Life for the living will go on.

Then something shocking will happen. We will be sad and surprised and not know what to do, so we will do nothing again. The cycle will continue.

Cycles continue unless we redirect the energy. We must take action in some way.

I don’t think meditating is enough. I don’t think dedicating my yoga practice to someone who is suffering is enough.

It helps me feel better, and hopefully it helps raise the energetic vibration in the world, but is it helping right now in a tangible way? I am not sure.

Love and prayers are wonderful, but we can’t limit our action to setting intentions and talking about how sad we are for the suffering of the world with our friends and family. 

We must find a way to act.

I don’t know what the best thing to do is.

For me, the first step is witnessing the suffering.

The second is researching options for action.

The third is taking action in the best way that I can at that time.

Sometimes that will mean donating money or time or services. Sometimes that will mean calling or writing government officials or attending a meeting or protest. Sometimes it will mean voting with my purchasing power.

Sometimes it will mean saying “I don’t know what to do. Help me understand. Help me see how to be of service.”

Maybe a meditation and prayer will be the best that I can do sometimes, but I think that it is important to question if there is an actionable way to be of service and if there is to go do it.

What else can I do?

What are you going to do? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts and ideas. I would truly love to hear them.