Can you hear me now?

To end poverty you do not need to give money...you do not need to give a voice to the hungry (they are already crying out)...you need to give a minute to listen. You need to give an ear.

Poverty is an expanding universe, a void in which the empty places between pulsing points of light are getting farther and farther away. Poverty is itself an empty sort of hunger. It is not noble, it does not make the impoverished deeper in spirit, closer to the earth, or more aware. Poverty causes suffering, lack, solitude, and bitterness.

Poverty is a helplessness.

If you are poor it is likely that your voice will never be heard.

Today I feel impotent, angry, voiceless, and alone. Today I feel poor.

I have started a website and a non profit group to bring awareness to these problems racing across the planet. I have tried to tell people that poverty is the greatest cause of environmental pollution, disease, and despair on earth. I have tried to say that the answer lies in saving people and that a very small contribution, a random act of kindness can make a big difference.
I have tweeted, and dugg, and faved, and facebooked, and press released, and blogged, and emailed, and talked. I have marched up and down the strands of the web like a girl with a sandwich board over her shoulders pacing the sidewalks of the city. I have used my voice and I have not been heard.

We need to learn to listen.

We need to learn not to impose our ideas of what should be done and how changes should occur. We need to become aware of the poor in a real organic way that has nothing to do with statistics and green organizations or "doing the right thing".
We need to share our ideas with each other, to reach out across the spaces and try to bridge the gaps together.
We need to find ways to take the needs of the world and translate them into messages that everyday people can understand. Statistics are terrible. It is horrific that every year 2 million children die of starvation...but it is horrific that any child dies from lack of food...ever...anywhere. 1 is more than we should allow if we can help it.
And we can.

We can help.

First by listening, and then doing something, anything at all to change things. Imagine how you would move the heaven and earth to help someone you love.

Take just 1 minute. Do just 1 thing. Give just 1 and make 1 big difference.

Please.

Stand in silence somewhere and hear the world rising up from the ground beneath your feet, hear their voices in the wind, feel them underneath the same warm sun.

First listen. Then speak for those that need an ear.