June 7, 2023
In the last few weeks, Canada
has been on fire. Literally. There have been wildfires burning in five of our
ten provinces (we have 10 provinces and 3 territories): British Columbia,
Alberta, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and also, recently, Northwestern Ontario. That
represents pretty much a fully coast-to-coast catastrophe of destruction happening
in real time.
So many fires burning at one
time is unprecedented. Unfortunately, unlike other kinds of natural disasters,
the effects of these fires don’t stay just where they’re burning. The smoke
from these wildfires is impacting millions of people not only across Canada,
but south of the border, into the United States. Likely, given enough time, that
damn smoke will be even farther reaching.
My heart always goes out to
those whose houses and/or belongings are lost to flames. David and I have
suffered two housefires over our fifty plus years of our marriage. Yes, we were
pretty much wiped out twice in our lifetimes. The two incidences were more than
a decade apart, but both times we considered ourselves lucky despite the heavy financial
loss. You see, we lost things, but we did not lose any people.
Recovery from that kind of devastation
takes a long time and carries on long after the news commentators and cameras
go home go home. My prayers are that those directly affected by personal loss
find help and solace as they begin to put the pieces of their lives back
together again.
As for the rest of us? I’m
praying that those fires are extinguished soon because the alternative doesn’t
bear thinking about. Millions of people have respiratory issues. My husband is
one of those. Extra prayers go out to all who are in that position because it
means a kind of self-imposed incarceration. This soon into the days of so-called
“outside weather” after the always long winter can seem especially cruel.
There is a great deal of
uncertainty that we’re all forced to live with lately in many aspects of our
lives. When it comes to weather, no one knows what a season is going to be like
anymore. Normal, when it comes to the median temperatures, and whatever Mother
Nature has in store for us is truly a thing of the past—or is at least
suspended for the immediate future. We can speculate that there will be heat in
the summer months and cold in the winter ones, but that’s about the limit to
our security.
I have always believed that we
humans truly do need to have some sense of security in our lives in order to
function well. I remember thinking that it seemed as if we hit a point in our
lives when or basic personal north-star of “normal” is set. And ever
afterwards, we compare what is to what was, and usually the comparison doesn’t
flatter the “what is” side of that equation.
And this north-star of ours covers
everything from what one should pay for a loaf of bread, to what constitutes acceptable
decorum. And when life happens outside of those boundaries that we have somehow
set up for ourselves, well, it isn’t pretty.
For those of us who are older,
it can feel as if life is spinning out of our control. That sense of a loss of
control, a loss of the ability to feel in charge of our own lives is a hard
blow for some to take.
We’ve often discussed, David
and I, the fact that as we’ve gotten older, more seldom come the arguments we’ve
felt moved to have, and fewer are the hills upon which we’re “willing to die”.
Things that used to matter so much to us now seem trivial and just not worth
the time and angst we used to spend on them.
And I don’t think that
particular mental space that we’ve been exploring lately is only ours. I think
others feel the same. And I do wonder if it’s a natural outcome of the aging
process itself. As if the concept of retirement is a natural one that extends beyond
one’s working life.
And if that’s true, how
marvelous is that? It’s as if the cosmos is handing out a reward for the hard
work, hard scrabble day-to-day battles waged in years past. As if it’s
whispering a soothing lullaby.
It’s time to rest, stop
worrying, and time to enjoy the moments that come your way.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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