When sudden change in our lives takes place we are shocked into realizations that were foreign to us just days or even moments before.
Things that were important yesterday or twenty minutes ago no longer have the value we initially gave them. How quickly we must prioritize our things, our stuff and our responsibilities.
I am thinking of friends and strangers who have homes in Santa Barbara, California and who are being asphyxiated with smoke and charred with flames as wild fires threaten homes and condos that seemingly were in a safe area.
Nothing is safe when the searing winds of nature’s harsh breath usurps the norm of life. An order comes to evacuate and you must instantly decide what to take with you or not, or maybe it’s just to escape with your life.
These are very tough choices I hope none of us ever has to make, but these kinds of things, events, calamities and tragedies are happening all the time all over the globe and most of us are unaware or too busy or even insensitive to notice.
Floods, famines, fires and wars. Tornadoes, typhoons, tsunamis and epidemics, earthquakes and land slides instantly change the docile, the innocent and local government authorities into a reactionary entity.
When death and destruction comes to the third world we react and help with tents, blankets, food, water and medicine. When death and destruction strikes close to home we react with instant news stories, sorrow, and ambient sympathy. Yes, the needed supplies will go there too, but coupled with the surprise that it happened here.
This is America. We allegedly have the power to stop everything, to fix anything, to control all, to change what we don’t like. Some things yes, but not nature. She is her own force of wind, fire, rain and snow and seismic power.
The reaction when destruction is so close to home is generally shock. It can’t happen here or at least it shouldn’t and eventually understanding and acceptance surfaces.
We’re the same as everyone else. Terrible things happen all over. Buildings collapse, cars crash, people get cancer, children, parents, family, and friends die and we feel the same emotion as if we lived in Bangladesh or Santa Barbara. We are a global community and a human synapse of spirit.
Humanity comes from the same place, we go back to the same place, and we are One with the Source of All That Is.
1 comment:
Hello from Santa Barbara! Luckily, the most important things in life are one another and that which we carry in our hearts. The rest of it doesn't matter much. Today and tomorrow may be devastating here, on top of the losses already mounted. But, there is beauty in families helping families, strangers helping strangers, and an abundance of simple acts of kindness witnessed at every turn. If we can remember to carry the grace into days when the wind isn't howling and carrying waves of destruction, our community will be stronger going forward.
S
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