In the morning I met a Yogi from Nepal. He reminded me with laughter that what matters in life is simple. To laugh, to serve, to do good work, to treasure friendships to live a life based on values.

Then I spent the remainder of the day with Aboriginal elders from around Australia. Their day by day, moment by moment struggle to help their people, to create thriving futures, to use their land rights wisely.

One wonderful man and his wife have always got more than their own sons filling their house, paying for the upkeep and care of kids who have alcoholic parents, kids who have lost connection not only with their identity, but with a relationship to this land, to being Australian. Kids who live in the ‘no-man’s land’ of the in between.

And I know in my bones that no matter what your colour, or heritage, no matter where you are from, human dignity…created from having something of value to do each day, to being valued by others, to mattering to others…is the same the world over.

Without it we are empty shells and hollow bones.

From Nepal to the vast lands of this great Southern Land, people seek to be seen and heard. Is this so hard for us as a human race to focus on and make manifest?

Photo credit: Alan Levine via Compfight