Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Really Paying Attention: Outdoors & In a World That's Gone Haywire

Despite already reaching my daily goal of 10,000 steps, I'm walking circles around the soccer field during my daughter's practice, begrudgingly giving the dog some exercise.

Yet as I walk circles tonight, I find my mood shifting.

When I get past my own lethargy, and really pay attention, I notice that it is truly a lovely night. The weather is quite mild and it seems spring has finally sprung. Black squirrels are romping through the woods where just last week, I saw a deer.  People of all sizes and ages are running about, engaged in their sports: my soccer girls are zipping across the field, lacrosse gents are running stamina drills, both wee ones and adults are playing baseball on both ends of the athletic complex. The swings are filled, and the whole area is abuzz not only with the freshness of spring, but also the innocence of youth.  It is as it should be, and the dog and I are maximizing our number of steps, and soaking it all in.

Yet meanwhile, not terribly far from here at all, riots, violence, & destruction abound in Baltimore. There is no springtime innocence or freshness there now, thanks to people who feel such a lack of respect that they turned a peaceful protest on its edge, destroying their own neighbors & neighborhoods. They created fires and then sabotaged the extinguishing efforts by slicing hose lines of water sources. People who will never grasp resolution at this rate due to the violence begetting just more violence. More than once has Martin Luther King, Jr been mentioned, and I literally see him shaking his head in my head, ashamed in Heaven of the horrible waste & mess people are making of Maryland's Baltimore.

I believe it's more than a racial issue: it's an American issue. Americans are turning on their fellow Americans. It's a senseless waste by unthinking people.

I also am ashamed that all this local self-inflicted destruction has led to such unsafe and scary
circumstances.  Stupidity-induced circumstances. Needless drama that has eclipsed the natural disaster and destruction of the Nepalese earthquake. THAT is a true disaster. (Well, Baltimore is unfortunately disastrous now too--but that is all man-made and could have been prevented through the choice of many.) Nepal, on the other hand, was blindsided. At last count there were over 5,000 deaths with the potential of 10,000.  Saddening and tragic.

In both places, there are innocents who have fallen in harms way. And thankfully, there are generous people in both situations who are working mightily to offer help and support. Rebuilding will be necessary in both places. But both of these situations aren't the same. One was preventable, if people would have been governed far more by love and kindness than hatred. When I think of all of this, I am ashamed of how it makes us look to the rest of the world--as Americans, turning on ourselves. What the people of Nepal would do to have such frivolous choice--and I am sure it wouldn't be to choose purposeful destruction.

So as I walk my circles around the field, I am past my initial exhaustion and desire to not be here. Instead, I am grateful for the simplicity of the green fields, and the laughter of the children that are here...and wish all of that could extend locally, nationally, and globally.

To assist with Nepal, Time Magazine offers 6 charities to check out, and a friend of mine also suggested ShelterBox USA.


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