Are You Hungry?

We live in a hungry world. 

Sitting at Einstein’s, I watched as a woman with a ten-dollar bill in her hand asked another, who had two well-worn bags in hers,“Are you hungry?” Being in a restaurant, the meaning was clear. Did her body have that achy feeling because she didn’t have the money to feed herself? That exchange solved the immediate problem.

Besides an empty stomach, we can have hunger for a person. A little girl described it perfectly: “I’m hungry for my daddy. I’m thirsty for my daddy.” A familiar story: her father worked long hours, and so most nights she was in bed by the time he got home.

Sometimes I’m hungry and don’t even know it. The awareness comes after a long conversation with a friend 1500 miles away, or on a visit to the enchanted place of my birth. It’s even possible to be hungry for wisdom. 

I’ve found myself positioned in between one who is hungry for information, comfort, and healing, and another with a book stalled on this would-be-author’s computer. I want to wave a magic wand to speed up the “birthing” process of the book; after all, there is food for the hungry person; it’s just not accessible. Yet my magic wand only works on my projects. 

Sometimes when an author senses the urgency of the need and their original purpose for creating the book, they set aside their resistance, hesitation, and other limiting excuses.

So maybe the better question is: Do you have something that would feed a hungry person? A letter, an encouraging observation, an extra pair of shoes, even a book? 

If the answer is yes, I urge you to step up and make it happen. We live in a world of great, big, huge hunger.