I woke rested and grateful for a good night’s sleep. Unless you are like me and have sleep issues, sleeping is one of those things we simply take for granted. There are so many things like that. I simply took it for granted that the car would start until I got in my car in front of the Dollar Store, and the key would not turn on the ignition. Fortunately, a kind man got it to work and told me to carry some oil in the car to spray in the ignition when it got dry, as older cars sometimes have this problem. I have been grateful for that kind stranger several times since.
Life is a gift. Every minute of every day, we are doing something or experiencing something that we simply take for granted because it is always there. The trees in my yard, for instance, were something my son and his wife also assumed would always be there until this last storm in North Carolina when two huge trees blew down. While one covered their driveway, neither affected their buildings. Talk about gratitude.
It is unfortunate that it often takes tragedy to make us appreciate what we simply assume will always be there for us. Yet the most tragic aspect of these horrendous storms that bring catastrophic damage and loss of life is we never seem to learn. We, as a society, clean up the mess, rebuild, and move on as if nothing ever happened. Many victims suffer from PTSD for the rest of their lives, but like the damage of warfare, that’s simply collateral damage to our ever-increasing greed.
What will it take for us to pay attention to the messages God/Mother Earth is sending us about our warming planet? The least we can do, it seems, is move away from the coastlines and storm-prone areas, but that appears to be too little too late. Safe areas are no longer safe. Drought-prone areas are now getting pounded with floods, while lush green areas are experiencing droughts. And yet we keep pouring CO2, fossil fuels, and other pollutants into the atmosphere and water because we assume a roaring economy is more important than human life and the life of our planet.
Even though we are experiencing day 9 of gray drizzle and rain, and our town’s street fair got rained out, we are very lucky. I am grateful that our rain-filled streams haven’t flooded their banks or that nothing catastrophic has happened. But that does not give us permission to go on as usual, pretending that we are not all called to change our ways. What would be so terrible about requiring all new homes to include solar panels or geothermal heating or that the government provide tax write-offs for updating older homes with energy-efficient products? Why this hysteria when electric producers want to create solar farms that may not be the prettiest things to look at but are so efficient in many ways? Solar farms actually protect future farmland while currently providing habitat for small animals and allowing for the flourishing of native grasses and plants.
Our selfishness is astounding, but then so are the consequences of our selfishness. My prayer is that we learn the lessons life has to teach us and that we learn to live with less and share more in order to provide a much needed respite for our amazing planet to slowly but surely heal herself.