I have been living with the vivid memory of abandoned, abused and extremely poor children in Kabira while reintegrating into the privileged world on this continent. I am thinking that no matter where we live, at whatever level of lack or abundance, the need to be loved appears to be the most basic. The little girl who cried on my chest for hours in Kabira cried because she does not feel loved; that was her stated reason. She did not say she cried because of hunger or deprivation which she experiences more than we can even imagine, but because she does not feel loved. I see this need everywhere I look, and observe that it is not unique to any particular circumstance in life.

What occurs to me tonight, as I feel my connection with those children across the globe, is that each human is born knowing that he or she deserves to be loved. It is an imprint at our origins, no matter how life might give us reason to doubt it. That awareness, even though remote to so many, keeps people getting up in the morning and trying again. We each do know, at the deepest level, that love is a birthright. Esther cried with me because she doesn’t feel love in her life, but I don’t believe she would have the energy to cry for it if she didn’t know she deserves it, and that somehow life owes it to her. I am sensing that this pain, longing and awareness is similar for every human. We are imprinted with love and know it is there for us, even as we search like explorers have done for unknown continents. Set the sails, find it. Esther left this impression with me.