I looked at the list I compiled yesterday of events that have transpired since the beginning of the year. I was trying to sort out why I felt so overwhelmed.
It revealed a lot.
Just think, a week and a half ago we were all checking out the skies for drones and orbs as we bid 2024 farewell. Then, the next day, we were hit with the news of a man driving an electric truck into the New Orleans crowd, killing 15, wounding more, and the news of the electric Tesla truck exploding in Las Vegas in front of the Trump Towers.
Seem like that was a long time ago now?
Well, as we tried to learn more about that, a mysterious fog veiled large swaths of the planet, giving off a chemical smell, making some people sick.
That was followed by the first human bird flu death and the reemergence of Drs Burke and Fauci, promoting testing of every chicken and pig and cow in the nation. Well, maybe just the chickens and cows, I forget.
China reported a massive outbreak of a viral disease, respiratory if I recall correctly; attacks children hard.
Former President Jimmy Carter passed away at age 100 and was given a State funeral, which all the living former Presidents attended.
President Elect Trump was sentenced to nothing but having to carry a conviction on his record.
And then the fires broke out.
And nothing else mattered. They eclipsed everything.
Well, unless you lived in the wide swath of southern states from Arkansas to Virginia that were hit with a major winter storm. 55+ million affected.
And all this, in a little over a week and a half!
Didn’t I tell you it looked like this year was going to be a humdinger? That pronouncement still stands.
Close to Home
Because so many people have migrated to southern California from all over the United States and all over the world in the last few decades, a lot of us have connections to someone who lives there. The impact of the fires will be felt across the globe.
Personally, I have an 87 year old friend who lives in Santa Monica. Her apartment building is only two blocks away from an Evacuation Warning zone. A warning means to get your things together and be ready to go. It’s the step before a Mandatory Evacuation order. I haven’t been able to find out if she’s okay. The winds are supposed to pick up again tonight.
I think about all the people trying to find out if loved ones are okay.
A friend of mine got a call from his brother who lives in southern California, a good distance from the fires. His daughter, her hubby and two small kids lived in the Palisades, and lost everything they couldn’t pack into their car. Burned to ashes. Gone.
I multiply what they’re facing by the thousands of destroyed homes.
And we’re just at the beginning.
If you know anyone who’s been affected by the fire – or by loss or tragedy of any kind – let them talk with you about what happened and how they’re experiencing it. Listening is more helpful that you might guess. It lets people sort out their thoughts and put an explosion of pieces into some kind of picture. It helps them process their forever-altered reality.
“What must it be like,” my friend asked me, “to be going through this as a kid! Imagine being seven or five and suddenly everything you ever knew of home disappears. You wouldn’t have any way to understand.”
I reminded him of the studies of children who had come through World War II’s bombings and disruptions. As long as they felt cared for and loved, they grew up pretty much unscathed by the horrors they had witnessed. Children are remarkably resilient. Their forming minds don’t yet make the judgments ours do.
You do the same with kids as you do with adults. Listen. Let them know you care enough to sit with them and share the moment together.
Life can be scary, and hard. But we can be courageous and open to the possibility that, in the end, everything will turn out fine. Life goes on. Even when we sometimes wish it wouldn’t. And it always comes with it a choice to decide what you’re going to make of it.
Make of it the best you can.
Remember to ask how easy you can let it be. Remember to breathe and to look around now and then. Be an encourager in the world. We all need that.
And hey, smile!
Warmly,
Susan
Screenshot KABC News