| Growing Edges January 30, 2010 |
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For those of you who have asked how to access my column, here's the link to this week's Growing Edges. http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2010/jan/29/home-is-where-you-knock-they-take-you-in/
For those of you who have asked to read the column on Haiti, intended for the January 23 issue of the San Angelo Standard Times, here is is, printed from my computer. The editor decided to print it on the front page of the paper on Tuesday of that week underneath a poignant photograph from Haiti. January 23, 2010 GROWING EDGES By Jeanie Miley
Last week on a cold, dreary, rainy afternoon near the end of the day I locked myself out of my house. I hadn't done such a thing in a long time, but I did it last week. "Oh, you poor thing," my neighbor said when I went to her house to see if she had a key to my house. "That's the worst thing!" "No," I said, quietly. "Have you seen the news about Haiti?" and we both stopped in our tracks, speechless in the face of what is one of the worst, if not the worst, natural disaster in my lifetime. The first pictures of the earthquake were just coming in as we talked. "Locking myself out of my house is an irritation," I told my neighbor, "but Haiti....." My words caught in my throat. There are no words to express how terrible this disaster is. The images of the suffering of other human beings hour after hour are almost unbearable to watch. On the afternoon I locked myself out of my house, I was going to get four different meds to take care of an upper respiratory infection that had attacked me with a vengeance. Standing outside in the cold, waiting for the key, I shivered and shook. I felt really awful. "This is terrible for you, Mom," my daughter said when she brought me a key, and I told her, "No, this is a temporary inconvenience. I have a warm house that is still standing, food in my kitchen and the ways and means to buy the medicine I need. And you are alive and well." Any of us, I suppose, can work up a sweat over the annoyances of daily life. There are dozens of things in the course of a week that throw us off-track and off-schedule, interfere with our plans or cause us discomfort, disappointment and even despair. To be fair, our own hurts hurt, and we must acknowledge that. Something of the magnitude and sheer awful-ness of the earthquake in Haiti has a way of putting trouble and trauma in its proper perspective. I'm fond of the quote that asks, "If you lose it when you burn the toast, what will you do when the house burns down?" Indeed. The tragedy in Haiti is most clearly an enormous and terrifying event. As 9/11 destroyed our illusions that we in this country are ultimately safe and immune to war or terrorism, so these natural disasters jerk us out of our illusions and fantasies about how the fierceness and force of Mother Nature rain on other people and happen somewhere far away. I've awakened in the night with the images from Haiti spinning in my head. I've prayed for the people of Haiti, the rescuers, the injured and the bereaved. I've wrung my hands and given what I could to help and I've come back to what I hope is more and more "home base." Home base is a choice to continue to live from a place of love and trust instead of fear and defensiveness. It is a choice to focus on all that is right, even as I acknowledge the dangers and perceived dangers in my world. It is a deliberate intention to live the Serenity Prayer that has sustained me for almost forty years. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. "I'm feeling weepy and overwhelmed by this thing in Haiti," a friend wrote to me. A man of deep faith, he is strong and courageous. "I'm glad you can feel the sorrow of it all," I wrote back. "May all of us feel new depths of compassion because of this. May we all weep, and may we act on our compassion." May this tragedy help us discern what matters most, and may we put first things first. May we who are strong and healthy do what we can for those who aren't.
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