The images and stories coming out of Haiti are heart-crushing. Our world is so small, so interconnected. The feeling of helplessness that so many people feel right now is only amplified by the fact that we can watch live as bodies pile up on the streets of Port-au-Prince.

I am struggling with the overwhelming sense of grief. Watching the evening news brings tears to my eyes and makes my chest ache. A video taken the morning after the earthquake tells the real story: muffled cries of misery, pain and anguish combine to fill the air with a dull roar of unimaginable sorrow.

I can’t let myself look away when the shattered body of young child is on the screen because it reminds me that we are fragile beings, and that this human birth is the most precious of gifts. Seeing this devastation, and the human suffering that has resulted, causes deep feelings of compassion and loving-kindness, and pain, to well up within my soul. I realize I am connected to Haiti, and to Haitians, and to the men and women who are working to bring relief in the midst of this devastation.

Om mani padme hung.