SoCS: Trials, Losses, and How Do We Heal?

Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “trail/trial.” Use one, use both, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both. Have fun! ….

There’s a song I like, except maybe for a couple of lines, called “Blessings.” Which lines, I won’t go into. Never mind that. But the chorus goes:

“What if your blessings come through raindrops?

What if your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you’re near?

What if trials in this life, are your mercies in disguise.”

It’s about how trials, disappointments, and challenges bring us closer to God. The song works well when applied to my divorce which, as I wrote about recently, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The problem now is that it does not seem to apply to the loss of a child. My heart and mind go to the parents who lost children to brutal, needless, senseless deaths by an 18-year-old who should never have been able to buy a gun and certainly not a weapon of war, in Texas.

I cannot imagine how those worst of trials can be a blessing. I don’t even know if the death of my sister, killed by a drunk driver on her 16th birthday, could have been a blessing to anyone, even with my parents’ dedicating the family room at the shelter in her memory. I don’t know how the loss of a child could be a blessing. Anything is possible, yes, but I would not say that to someone who has just lost a child. I would imagine the anger and overwhelming grief would be too much to even think of blessings, right now.

The husband of a teacher who was killed died from a heart attack – a broken heart – while preparing for his wife’s funeral. Joe and Irma Garcia had been married for 24 years. They had been high school sweethearts.

It’s so wrong. Wrong upon wrong, upon wrong, as we are finding out in the investigation.

Other countries have done better than the US when it comes to gun control and this type of murder. That’s for sure. There is a sickness in the heart of my country. (I just struck through “the heart of” because we have good hearts. Mostly.) Maybe we can recover from this sickness. Individual states have and can pass sensible gun laws. We can improve mental health services, address school dropout rates, etc., but I believe it’s going to take some kind of bigger shift. It’s complicated. Or maybe not.

I hope the investigations will lead to improvements. My hope is floundering a bit which is not typical. It will come as no surprise to most of my readers that I believe we need more balance between bad news and good news. That’s part of the sickness – a lack of balance.

Healing. How do we heal? Look for the good. Look for the true heroes, like teachers who continue to teach in schools, first responders who do what is necessary, leaders who have the courage to make changes for a more peaceful country, and a more peaceful world, parents who keep going after heartbreaking loss. Look for the heroes. Hold them up. Hold them in your heart. Keep them in your prayers. We can all do our part to nurture peace.

I know this is a rambling rant. Sometimes that’s what you get in the stream of consciousness. I confess I have gone back and edited a little. It was badly needed.

Maybe I should’ve written about hiking trails. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll put some in a gallery. There’s something coming to me about “The Peace of Wild Things” – a poem by Wendell Berry.

My granddaughter on the trail

Better duck

Trail on the right

Below are some of my most recent photos from the Farm Animal Sanctuary

Delilah on the porch

Esther the Elder

Simon with the Lady in Charge giving TLC

Simon has healed from a mysterious paralysis.

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For more streams of consciousness and rules, visit our host, Linda Hill by following this trail: https://lindaghill.com/2022/05/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-28-2022/

One-Liner Wednesday on Children and Laptops

Children need places where they feel safe.

We can’t protect them from everything,

but we can give them our best.

Colin Powell died on Monday, October 18, 2021. He was an American statesman, four-star general, and the first African-American US secretary of state. He served as commander of the US Armed Forces and the US National security advisor. He was born in New York City in 1937 to Jamaican immigrant parents, raised in the Bronx, and went to public schools before joining the army.

A diplomatic moderate, Colin Powell was the only republican that I would have considered voting for as a US president. Anything is possible.

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One-Liner Wednesday is brought to you by our host, Linda Hill. For more One-Liners, visit Linda at:

One-Liner Wednesday – The line

#WATWB: Caring for 600 Foster Children Over Fifty Years

Linda Herring, and her husband, Bob, provided foster care for over 600 children in nearly fifty years.  They mostly took in children with special medical needs and would often take calls and go pick up a children in the middle of the night. One of the comforts Linda provided was to make sure every new child had a professional photograph hanging on their living room wall.

When Linda first started fostering children in the 1970s, she was running a home daycare and working as a high school custodian. She also volunteered as a first responder for much of her life.  One of the things that drew me to this story is remembering how much energy it took to raise my two children. I know Linda and Bob had help, but what a labor of love!

Linda is now 75 and has decided to stop fostering children due to her own health concerns. She was recently recognized for her service in her state of Iowa.

You can read more about Linda Herring in this article from the Good News Network.

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We Are The World Blogfest is a festival of positive stories hosted on the last Friday of every month. This month’s co-hosts are D. Biswas – https://www.damyantiwrites.com/ – L. Hartz – https://authorlizbethhartz.com/blog – S. Garg – http://shilpaagarg.com/ – M. Giese – https://maryjmelange.wordpress.com/ – S. Stein – https://ssteinwriting.wordpress.com/ –

For details, click here.

You can find more WATWB stories on the Facebook Page.

To sign up for WATWB click here.

 

Good News Tuesday: Safety for Children and Animals, Ending Chronic Homelessness, London Air Quality, and Hidden Figures Recognized

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

 

Sensor Detects Children and Animals Left in Vehicles

A small, inexpensive device, developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo, can detect unattended children or animals in a car. The device is 100% accurate and uses a combination of radar and artificial intelligence. It’s designed to be attached to the rear view mirror or mounted on the ceiling. I know we shouldn’t have to depend on sensor. We all need to be mindful of safety for those who depend on us to take care of them. But this sensor can help the ones who are vulnerable.

Here are the details: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ai-sensor-to-save-kids-left-in-cars-could-be-installed-by-2020/

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Ending Chronic Homelessness

Three US cities have ended chronic homelessness and nine have ended chronic homelessness for veterans.

“By ending homelessness, we mean getting to a place where it’s rare, brief, and it gets solved correctly and quickly when it does happen.”

Rosanne Haggerty,  Community Solutions,

 

The following article explains a program, Built for Zero, a program that uses systemic data to track homeless community members in real time to identify and coordinate services.  The success appears to be related to focus, monitoring, and commitment.

You can click here for the details.

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Central London Air Quality Has Improved with New Rules

the Ultra Low Emissions Zone was established in central London, toxic emissions have fallen by 36%.  The city created a toxicity charge for older vehicles that don’t meet standards in the zone.  A big motivator for creating the ULEZ was an increase in children suffering chronic illness and lung damage as a result of air pollution.

“I am determined to stop Londoners breathing air so filthy it is damaging our children’s lungs and causing thousands of premature deaths,” Khan says. “The ULEZ shows what we can achieve if we are brave enough to implement such ambitious policies.”     ___London Mayor Sadiq Khan

For more information, visit this article from NPR.

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Women Who Inspired “Hidden Figures” to Get Congressional Gold Medals

In October, the US Congress passed the The Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act to award Gold Medals to Katherine Johnson and Dr. Christine Darden and posthumously  to Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.  The women are being nationally recognized for their significant contributions to NASA during the “Space Race” of the 1960s. The US Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian recognition in the United States.

You can  read more about these courageous pioneers in   this CNN article, 

and in this article from Black Voice News

Below are two great scenes from the movie, Hidden Figures, based on the book, Hidden Figures, The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly.  The women who were once hidden figures had to overcome both entrenched sexism and racial prejudice.

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Got good news?

Please share in the comments!

Or write your own #GoodNewsTuesday post and link it back here.

Good News Tuesday: Sibling Adoption, Marathon Sanctuary, & a Special Donation

I hope you’re all having a lovely holiday. I didn’t completely forget about Good News Tuesday. I had most of this post done a few days ago, back when I remembered that Christmas was on Tuesday. After this morning’s hike and some veggie lasagna, I was just settling in for a nap when I realized, it’s Tuesday! The good news doesn’t stop! So here we go….

 

Seven Siblings are adopted After 1,035 days in Foster Care.

Michael and Terri Hawthorn’s four biological children were mostly grown up. In April they adopted toddler twins. On December 3rd, they adopted seven siblings. I think you’ll enjoy their story:

 

 

 

On-Going Marathon Mass Provides Sanctuary for One Family

A Church in The Netherlands has been holding a 24/7 around the clock church service for over 6 weeks to provide sanctuary for an Armenian family.  It was a special treat for me to hear them singing some of my favorite Taize chants.  I love how volunteers from many denominations are helping.

 

 

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Donating instead of Shipping

This couple is moving from California to North Carolina. But instead of shipping their stuff across the country, they’re donating  almost all their possessions to California Firefighters.

 

 

May the Holy Days bring and Abundance of

Peace and Joy

to You and Your Loved Ones.

Merry Christmas!

Rival Gang Members Build a Playground of Peace

Rival gang members in Chicago were tired of the violence. They didn’t even remember what they were fighting about. What they did know is that the neighborhood children needed a place to play. After an 8 month truce, they joined together to help build  a playground where their children can play together.

Imagine the possibilities!

 

What’s YOUR good news? Feel free to share in the comments!

A Superhero, Kids on a Plane, and a Cursive Writing Champ

I hope you enjoy these three good news stories involving children.

Four year old Austin is a superhero who helps the homeless with food and with lots of love. I think he’s going to run for president some day. He’s got my vote!

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This next story is about a man who helps out with children on a plane. Some people would ask to move to a different seat. But this guy jumps in to help with persistent patience.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mans-act-of-kindness-on-airplane-goes-viral-after-grateful-mom-posts-about-him/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=51561250

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And finally, nine year old Anaya Ellick who was born without hands, recently won another award for cursive handwriting.

 

Feel free to share your good news in the comments, be it personal, local, or global!

The Days are Long, But the Years are Short

Things always seem to take longer than I think they should, while I’m waiting at least. I bet the soldiers fighting for American independence way back during that revolution thought it was taking a long time. And here we are celebrating in America all weekend long as July 4 approaches.

It seemed to take a long time for my soulmate to find me again. Thirty-nine years passed since we had last seen each other in high school. It didn’t take that long because God is slow. It took that long because WE are slow to learn what we need to learn.

I’m still slow. God showed me that things work out when the time is right. But I still worry about when is my daughter going to be independent, now that she is technically grown up. But we are never really done growing up, are we? It’s a life-long process.

The days are long, but the years are short. Someone told me that when my daughter was born. It’s true of children, and it’s true of adults, too. Each day seems long when we are in the midst of the day, especially when things are challenging or boring. But the past 5 years since my sweetheart found me again have gone by in the blink of an eye. Thank God we have photos to show memories to prove that a lot of time really did go by, because all those things had to take time.  We have photos of children at different stages of life, diapers, Halloween costumes, Christmases, firsts of all kinds, birthdays, graduations. The photos capture moments in time so the time passing does not seen like such a blur, like when you’re looking out the car window from the side.

So how did I get from things seeming to take too long, to life passing so quickly? That’s the Stream of Consciousness of you!

This song reminds me of the roads my sweetheart and I took to be ready to be together again. It’s always been one of my favorites.

 

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was the word, “long.” You can find more streams by visiting Linda Hill’s blog:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/07/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-216/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!