There are moments when the world asks us to become accustomed to what should never become the ordinary.
We hear the cries.
We see the suffering.
We recognize the imbalance between those who hold power and those who bear its consequences.
And still, life continues around it.
Perhaps the danger is not only in what human beings are capable of doing to one another, but in how easily the unacceptable can become familiar.
Leaving the cave does not mean knowing how to fix everything we see.
It means being willing to see.
And once we see, we have a choice.
We can look away.
We can become accustomed to it.
Or we can allow what we have witnessed
to awaken something within us.
Conscience asks something of us.
Perhaps it is a voice.
A hand extended.
A truth spoken.
A vulnerable person protected.
A refusal to participate.
A small act of compassion where indifference has become easier.
We may not be able to change everything we see.
But we can choose what we will become because we have seen it.
Perhaps that is where change begins.
Not within the question,
When is it enough?
— a Torchbearer Wisdom by Corvalya
(Companion reflection: She Left the Cave — the moment before the eyes first opened.)