Yesterday I found myself rediscovering Switchfoot's Nothing is Sound
album.
This morning I woke up early due to digestive needs and found
myself facing the most beautiful sunrise I have experienced here thus
far (and I have experienced many, many sunrises here). Directly
horizontal and above me the sky danced in shades of pink and orange,
and below me, I looked over the ocean of clouds, dimly reflecting
these beautiful colors. Every tree and object sticking up cast long,
eerie shadows over the ground, simultaneously creating striking
silhouettes against the sky. Yet nowhere could the sun be seen. I
realized another mountain peak blocked this orange ball of fire from
my sight. I looked around at the shadowy state of my home, where I yet
required a flashlight to see around, and smiled. The shadows proved
the sunshine.The day was breaking, and shadows were cast everywhere.
Relying on an old-fashioned piece of technology called the radio, we
are hearing rumors that Aung San Suu Kyi has been entering into some
potentially meaningful peace talks with the ruling regime of Burma.
Right now, everything seems hopeless when I think about the things the
SPDC does to the minority groups here. The other day I heard a story
about the SPDC, who occupied a town in the Shan State, one day
randomly kidnapping a little six year old girl, raping her, and then
sealing her in the town's pagoda alive, for no other reason than that
they could. This little child died a slow death of starvation in the
pitch black, nobody hearing her cries, nobody coming to her rescue.
Her mother went a little crazy afterward, never quite recovering.
It's
hard to imagine that those who do this to such pictures of innocence
might really every making peace with those they've been attacking and
torturing for decades. Yet it's possible a little hint of pink dances
on the horizon, as we look around the shadowy, gloomy landscape of
this earth. With that in mind, I leave you the words of Switchfoot's "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine."
Switchfoot - “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine”
Sunshine, won't you be my mother?
Sunshine, come and help me sing.
My heart is darker than these oceans.
My heart is frozen underneath.
We are crooked souls trying to stay up straight.
Dry eyes in the pouring rain.
Well, the shadow proves the sunshine.
The shadow proves the sunshine.
Too scared it'll run away.
Hold fast to the break of daylight.
The shadow proves the sunshine.
Oh, Lord why did you forsake me?
Oh, Lord, don't be far away.
Storm clouds gathering beside me.
Please Lord don't look the other way.
Crooked souls trying to stay up straight.
Dry eyes in the pouring rain.
The shadow proves the sunshine.
The shadow proves the sunshine.
Too scared it'll run away.
Hold fast to the break of daylight.
The shadow proves the sunshine.
The shadow proves the sunshine.
