Heal the world... You can make it a better place.

There'd better be a good excuse for a blogger with a fair number of regular followers in all corners of the globe - from Demark to Hong Kong, Romania to Sri Lanka and Argentina to Israel - to disappear for six weeks, right?  Well, I've certainly got a good reason -- and countless stories to tell.

I've spent six weeks in a part of the world with the greatest dichotomies I can imagine.  I've seen the richest of the rich living fat and happily on one side of a concrete wall while the most poverty stricken human beings live on the other.  That these extremes exist is heart-wrenching in and of itself - that they exist within a stone's throw of one another is unfathomable.  That they live daily with the reality of each other is heartbreaking.  That nothing is being done to change this is criminal.

I've seen poverty, slums, starvation, corruption, child prostitution, abuse of power, child neglect, beggars, crippled outcasts, blatant pollution, hard labor, bare feet on city streets, animals and children eating from dumps, trash in national parks, exploitation of natives, parading of culture for commercial consumption, exploitation of those doing good and false promises by those who should be doing good.  I've seen it all, I've felt it all, I've been changed by it all.

There will be many stories to come but this is the opening of the box of souvenirs I brought home in my own heart - a collection of vile and screaming injustices that must be changed in the world.  I ask you to join me, if only in your heart.  Open up, ask yourself to give your attention and compassion to any of these stories and you will have made the first step.

I'll see you there - where we are changing the world, one step at a time.