Bowl 13: Sean

He has stood near clinics since 1987,

talking to women and "saving lives."

I approach trying to keep my heart open.

He is not someone I normally move toward.

He is friendly, with the calm confidence that he is doing "God's work."

He tells me he been a street counselor for many years, 

some of them full time - living on $15 a week and the generosity of friends.

"It's always wrong to kill," he says.

And I agree -- it is, in fact, the first precept.

And yet I know that being human, we destroy life all the time,

knowingly and unknowingly . . . 

being human, we do the best we can.

And I also know, as a woman, the relief of knowing

that I would not be a mother before I was ready,

and the lingering pain of deciding to end the possibility of life.

Life moves through everything

forming and re-forming.

In a perfect world all babies would be loved and cherished.

All beings would be nourished, safe, and healthy.

In this perfectly imperfect world, living beings suffer in so many ways.

and though we may not agree,

we can still move toward one another

keeping our hearts open,

knowing that being human, we all do the best we can.