The WHY of things

Last night I woke up around 1 am and looked out the back door to see if the rain had stopped. The sky was a weird pinkish orange, un-natural light from the school yard a few blocks away. I never like it when the sky looks that color. It happens when the air is wet and the sky is cloud filled. The lights carry in the moist air and makes the whole sky look like some Star Trek scene from another planet. For me, its one more of mans footprints that changes things too much. Oh of course I know how good they are for safety and all that, and that they are necessary, but I still don’t like the way they make the world around me look. So artificial. Like a silver Christmas tree.
In that brief moment by the back door, looking out at the pinkish orange sky, it occurred to me that I have had little time to really think lately. There are times and seasons in our lives and this happens to be a busy one, helping the kids get their house ready to move into and then the move, amidst all this rain and dampness. Paint is slow drying, the carpets were shampooed but they are not drying very quickly either, so delay after delay has been the norm. All these things have contributed to my lack of thinking time, that quiet time each day when I just think.
Yesterday I caught a glimpse of the Oprah show and saw it was about Breast Cancer. I started on my normal thought pattern when I saw the subject, “why do so many American woman have breast cancer, compared to other places in the world?” We are quick with treatments and medications to stop the cancer, but so slow in finding out WHY on earth there is so much of it in our nation. Much like western medicine as a whole, fast to treat the symptoms but never looking at WHY the symptoms have arrived. When I consult someone about natural treatments with herbs, I always warn them, herbal medicine takes weeks, or maybe a month or so to show real progress. Most folks want instant cure from any discomfort, so we as a people have medications that work fast, but then you often need to take an additional medication to counteract what the first one did. Or you see an ad on the television from an Lawyer saying, “if you took such and such drug, you may be eligible for a settlement.” followed by a commercial for that very drug. Some drug ads even say things like, “side effects may include death”. But we have demanded instant relief and so they provide drugs that do that, only many of them cause another problem.
Let me state here, I am not against medications and modern medicine, there are some really life saving things out there and we know first hand that without daily medication, our daughter would not be alive. But, we do go a bit overboard as a people, not willing to search for the cause with the same enthusiasm we have for so many other things in this life. Wouldn’t it be great to have a RACE FOR THE CAUSE, so we wouldn’t need to do a Race for the Cure ? If you build a certain kind of bridge and they all break, instead of repeatedly fixing them, and never looking into why they are breaking, it would be wise to find out WHY they keep breaking. Even with the huge weight problem in this country, find out why so many are emotionally eating. Our culture is missing the mark on finding out why children especially are feeling the need to stuff themselves with food. We know and say “its not what you are eating, but what’s eating you”. So why not address the real issues ? I think I know why…ever meet a family that looks great on the outside, so in control and so together looking, only to find out there is some serious problem behind closed doors ? We as a nation want to look good, look in control. Hate to admit that some of the things we do in modern times is not working. We are too rushed, too stressed, too after things, stuff. We are scattered family wise. Family is more than just a husband and wife and a couple kids. It should include aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and the like. There should be a support system of extended family members. In my time, we even knew our neighbors, some were just like extended family.
I don’t have the answers on how to solve all this, but I do know as people, we should all be looking into what really works for us and what doesn’t.
We all need time, time to think, to reason, to come up with solutions. To get beyond the moment and plan.
Its time for me to get some breakfast, get dressed and get to work helping Melanie pack. She is pretty frustrated at not being able to do any work right now. Extended family is important. This weekend, it will be a big family event getting them moved into their new house.
Once again we are now under tornado watch. Another heavy rain day with threat of high winds and large hail. The sky has darkened. People driving by have their headlights on and lights are on in the neighboring homes. The winds are picking up. It is strangely silent outside. The birds have all sought shelter. Thunder just rolled in, breaking the silence.

A Celtic Cross in the front garden

Tibetan prayer flags blowing in the wind