Miracles and Mourning In The Midst Of China

         Are you safe and warm; do you have food to eat and clean water to drink where you are?  You are blessed.  China is in the middle of a mass of miracles and mourning after the earthquake this past week.   Families are suffering; and, grieving losses of people and possessions.  Many are without a safe place to live.  This devastation is large scale and overwhelming to those in need as well as to the aid workers. 

         Getting clean water, food and shelter to all those who have need is no easy task.  Adding the additional strain of flooding from rivers, streams and lakes that have been blocked by debris and backed up water flow; only makes getting aid supplies into remote areas more difficult.

         In a country that encourages a family practice of having one birth child, it has a significant impact because, the earthquake has taken the future from many families.  Many have honored the Chinese government’s policy to only have one birth child to cut down on the over-population problem.  Since this earthquake brought down many schools, hospitals and other institutions that housed children…the impact has devastating, life-long consequences on China’s infrastructure.

           Those most vulnerable are the elderly and the young children.  The future can be bleak for those who only had one child to care for them in their elder years.  If they are past the age of child bearing…this can bring an end to their family line. 

          In the center of all of this madness, the Olympics are to be held in China in 81 days.  The International Olympic Committee has decided to pause the torch relay out of respect for the victims.  There will also be three days of national mourning, starting on Monday.  

           There have been stories of miracles; people who have been buried, under debris and rubble since the quake, who have overcome the circumstances and survived.  There will be many such stories as communications improve and time goes on.  One man in particular survived 139 hours trapped in rubble from a hospital and came away with minor bruising.  

           Each miracle brings hope to the hearts of those who have missing loved ones; as experts have said that, a person could survive in these conditions for up to a week as long as they had some access to water and the temperatures were at a survivable level. 

      

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

I hope I dont hear…ooops, she did it again!

       Ok, i have been awake less than 15 minutes and I am hearing the news (good, I believe) that Britney Spears has been admitted again for a mental health evaluation in California.

       I hope i do not hear in the headlines the stupid line, Oops, she did it again.  I know some media will make terrible headlines.  This is serious people…she is in terrible need.   You know what…we have all been observing a young woman who has been drowning.  It is almost like everyone is standing around saying, i wonder who is going to jump in and save her.  While we all wait….she has been going underwater not knowing if she will come back up. 

        Even though she needs help badly, it is still a tragedy that she has to be admitted anywhere “again”.  Why wasn’t she kept in the hospital the last time?  When the last incident happened the media proclaimed that it was a typical California 72-hour watch.  She was released in a day and a half.  Who made that decision?

       I am sure, for her parents or whoever made the decision to make the call this time, for another evaluation it had to have been a hard decision.  How could they not wonder…will she get healthy, will she hate us forever, will she once again cut us out of her life?  These are hard thoughts that thousands of people, everyday, deal with in their own families when a loved one has a mental illness.

       So, people, dont make jokes, don’t make light of her situation.  I think most people are realizing that this isn’t something to make jokes about at Britney’s expense; but at the same time….there are people who will try to make a profit off of selling pictures of her or something. 

       It is hard to value yourself emotionally when everywhere she looks…someone wants to get something from her.  I am sure that and the constant hangers on in her life have only added to her illness …whatever that may be.  And no, none of us have a right to know what that illness is…unless, She, the patient wants people to know once she has time to heal and mend.

       Let us not forget…there are two young children growing up in the middle of this legal and emotional spotlight.  They will live with the reminders of mom and her “breakdowns” just like a very famous Hollywood woman named Marilyn Monroe or Norma Jean, if you will.

      Times have come a long way since those days in the treatment of mental health…but, the stigma of mental health is no better now than it was then.  May God grant healing for all those touched by mental health illnesses.

      

Read Full Post »