Keeping Perspective

One of the things helping me is reflecting on my situation in the context of others’ stories and situations in the world.  Among you I have friends that are or have dealt with situations like:

• A friend has a child with muscular dystrophy who is now in his early twenties, which is a relatively long life for people suffering this debilitating disease.  About five times each night he calls for assistance needing to be physically turned to be made comfortable in his bed.  As you can imagine there are many other issues to deal with.  My friend is married, has two other children, works for a living and is always realistic, positive and looking for the best in life for herself and her family.
• A friend had an older sister who committed suicide in middle age.  My friend’s mother did not like funerals and would not agree to a funeral service for my friend’s father or sister.  After he mother died recently, this friend arranged for a beautiful funeral for her Mum that included remembering her father and sister.
• Friends had a son who suffered from disabilities that were exacerbated when he smoked pot.  This led him to suicide as a young man in his early twenties.
• A friend who lost her mother to cancer of the womb when she was ten years old.

I know there are many other difficult stories among my readers.

And we just need to think of our world in 2011:

• Among worldwide tragedies, those killed in the Queensland floods, the Christchurch and Japanese earthquakes.  Indeed it is amazing that comparatively few people died in these events due to the responses of government, the countries’ building codes and the Japanese effective early warning system.
• In the Middle East – governments shooting their own people simply because those people are demonstrating for a fairer system.  In these countries, wealth is often obscenely concentrated with very few of the total population while most people work for relatively small wages that make it hard to provide for their family and live a fulfilling life.  These countries are often comparatively rich but the richness is not spread through the populations fairly.

I am in the situation where I have an unknown amount of time to continue living my life, spend time with my family and friends, make choices and live as normally as I can.