I see. I choose. I change.

When you see it, you are given a choice. Choices change you.

I was walking to the store, very proud of myself for getting so much done in one morning: and then I saw it. A small box with a tiny kitten and some cat food in the middle of the sidewalk. I don’t even think it is big enough to eat cat food yet. But someone abandoned it there, not wanting it or not wanting to see it die or hoping someone else would take responsibility.
I recoil in horror. My stomachs turns in me. Who would do such a horrible thing? Why should the little, the innocent suffer? Why is the world such a cruel place? My day turns dark- and all this with a little box.

There are little boxes with little “kittens” in them everywhere: injustice, suffering, death. But so many days I don’t see them in my path. so many days they aren’t real to me because I haven’t seen them or acknowledged them personally. Many days I can live in ignorant bliss because I didn’t look down and see the little box, or I don’t even take a path that will hold any little boxes.

As a child of God, I believe I am called to open my eyes. To not hide from or ignore, but face head on the sadness and evil in this world. Even when I feel it may break me. And as a Christian, I am not only called to see, but to seek. To walk different paths that will open even more pain as more boxes are uncovered. I am called to seek friendships with those not like me. Who look different, who talk different, who vote different. And I am called to love them.

“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” But you first must open your eyes and see. First you must take a path that will put little boxes at your feet. And once you do, everything changes.