This
has been a rough summer, and it looks as if Mother Nature and Lady Luckless are
nowhere near finished with us. As if a pandemic weren’t challenge enough, the East
coast of our country was battered by Hurricane Laura, and the West coast has
been consumed by fire.
Here on
the home front in Missouri, we face our own set of challenges. Life has changed
during the lost spring and summer of 2020. A year that promised to be a year of
perfect vision has clouded over with isolation and financial hard times for
many--a time that brought out the best and worst of us. It has been a challenge
to know when to standup or to stand down, and too many of us haven’t figured it
out yet.
Many members
of my Oregon family have had to evacuate ahead of the blistering damage of
wildfires. Fire has forever changed the landscape of the place that was home in
Jim’s heart. He often talked of and visited his “childhood” places. I’ve
watched with dismay as landmarks Jim loved to visit lay in a heap of ashes. My
heart hurts for the loss of property and life.
My
niece told of their harrowing exit to escape the impending danger of the
wildfires. They checked on neighbors, helped a bedridden man out of his home, and rescued another couple whose car was broken down. They took time amidst
chaos to lend a helping hand.
I
watched horrifying videos of Oregon burning. Then, like a rainbow, I saw some
shots, my cousin Debbie Kuhn took of the David Dewett Veterans Memorial Wayside
in North Bend, on the Oregon coast. The eerie orange haze of the wildfires added an ethereal beauty
that belied the deadly blazes ravaging the countryside. Nature can be glorious
in its treachery.
The
motto “Some Gave All” made me think of Jim and reminded me that some soldiers who
made it home from the war died in Vietnam; they just didn’t know it. The war
changed Jim and shaped his life, and most likely led to the dementia that
ended it. I’ve come to the conclusion
that life teaches us a lot of lessons, but death teaches us more. We cannot
afford to squander the limited amount of time we have to accomplish our mission
here on earth.
I used
to see autumn as the few months before the cold, blustery winter and spent the
glorious days dreading what lay ahead. Winter seemed to be a miserable time of
year. I can remember Jim going out and starting the car multiple times so that
it would start the next morning. Frozen pipes, high heating bills, snowdrifts,
and bone-chilling weather made winter a dreadful time of year.
Now
that I’m retired, I don’t worry about winter anymore. I think more of the glistening
snow and less of the cold. Only I can choose whether to dread the ugliness of life,
or to seek the beauty that surrounds me.
Copyright
© September 2020 by L.S. Fisher
http://earlyonset.blogspot.com
#ENDALZ
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