Stargazing

Just watched the film "The Impossible" about the 2004 South-East Asian Tsunami and feel humbled.

By two things.

The bit where Maria (the Mum)'s wounds are being bathed by Thai women before she gets trucked off to hospital.

And the bit where her 7 and a half year old son is staring up at the stars beside a 75 year old woman.

The first made me cringe. Made me think of all us Westerners here in Cambodia wanting to serve the people. Wanting to help and make a difference. And yet, when it comes to it, we are all vulnerable. All fragile. And I realise being here that the people who have been my true healers have been Cambodians. A little girl called Esther. Sreyrom. Khim. Navi. And they didn't even mean to. They were just being themselves.

The second made me sad. And happy. The woman tells the boy that some of the stars have been dead for a long long time.

"They're dead. But once they were so bright that their light is still travelling through Space. We can still see them".

This morning I heard that a friend from the Isle of Wight had died of cancer. And as I watched this scene I thought of him. Though not as a star in Space but as a saint who's taken his place among the Great Cloud of Witnesses. And whose memory I know will travel well and burn bright for a very long time.

NB Clive X