Thoughts for others provide support.

Thought, the acknowledgment of someone else’s existence, regardless of whether those thoughts are positive or negative, affirm the importance of that other person. Thought has energy. Positive, loving thoughts have great energy, for they affirm, they uplift, they provide depth. But negative thoughts still acknowledge that at some level, another individual has significance. The presence of that thought, the presence of that acknowledgment, has far greater impact than being ignorant of others, of refusing to acknowledge others, of refusing to care.

The most damaging impact you can have on others is a refusal to admit to their having a place in life. There is great damage to being out of sight and therefore out of mind. Try not to forget those whom you do not know. Think of the reality of suffering that exists worldwide—physical suffering, emotional suffering, social suffering, economic, political suffering. You do not need to provide names to all who suffer, but being willing to acknowledge that there are those in agony, and that you wish that pain could be lessened, is really a powerful thought and provides support to their souls.

If you refuse to acknowledge that others are suffering and think that all life is only what you see, you are not doing service in a spirit of love. So your awareness, just the awareness that there are those with great needs, serves the same as if you pray for them to somehow find relief, for you are giving those unspecified people a place at the table of life, and they are valued.

When individuals are retained in prisons and jails, you do not simply forget them and assume they don’t exist. You can think of them. Some are guilty, some are not guilty, but they do exist. They do have a life. You may approve of what they stood for, or you may disapprove of what they stood for, but in either case you acknowledge they exist, and it is that knowledge that carries with it the same power as prayer. But when you pray to God because you know of God, you are opening them even more to the presence that is God, the presence that exceeds the presence of all that is created.