What Makes You Sad?

I have felt profound sadness for the last three weeks about three very different things.

The first week there was a young girl, just turned 21, who was killed in a car crash locally. She was a passenger in her own car that was being driven by a young male. They hit a lamp post, snapping it off three feet from the ground, and the car caught fire from the fallen power lines. The picture that all this evokes for me is not pretty. I knew this girl as a contemporary of my daughter and also because she had a baby when she was only 18, who was the prettiest and sweetest little girl. I always spoke to and admired the child when I saw the little family on  the street.  This incident made me feel so very sad as that young mother had so much to live for. She was a lovely and very likable young girl and I have no doubt she has left many grieving people behind. Not least her lovely child who will now grow up without the mother she deserves. Life is so very fragile. I cannot bear the thought of celebrating your child's 21st and then two weeks later she is gone from this world. However I also believe that if our time is up it is up. Obviously that is the journey that those two young ones must take as is also the case for those they have left behind. It seems so senseless and it is hard to come to an understanding and acceptance of the death.

The very next week saw the very quick and complete removal and burning of some beautiful trees along what once used to be the Princes Highway between towns. Not only were lots of beautiful big gum trees felled they were then just burnt. Not offered for someone to use them for woodworking or for fuel. No just burnt the next day!

The local paper tells us that it had to be done because a road is going in there. The depth of my sadness is huge. I also know that other people were hurt by the sight. One lady described it as 'like a mass murder'.
It is an abuse to the earth, to people, to all the various creatures that would have called them home and an abuse to the very air we breathe. Once again it strikes me as being so senseless. If the architects couldn't find a place to put a road that didn't require so many trees being destroyed then perhaps they need to think outside the square a little. Perhaps that was not a priority in their instructions!

Then the next week I was told about a very old lady who has been forced into care against her wishes. It seems so sad to me that we are made to live a certain way that some nameless person says is appropriate. I am beginning to think that the North American Indians had it right, if as the story goes they left the old ones out in the snow. Please let me go to sleep in a blizzard and let my soul drift off to a better place whilst my body slowed down to a stop with the cold. It sounds like bliss in comparison from my perspective. I know other people who have really enjoyed and chosen to go to an aged care facility, as it gives them comfort and company that they didn't have at home. So each to their own but it is a shame that we don't have a choice in such matters. Once again it made me very deeply sad to think of this woman in a situation which she will find so hard to adjust to.

I am feeling happy now though, as I have a weekend off and time to call my own. I intend to walk in the beautiful bush and touch Mother Earth. I hope to get some lawn mowing done and some gardening. A bit of extra sleep won't go astray either. So enjoy your weekend  and remind all that care is needed when driving, say thank you to the trees and flowers that brighten up your day and give you the very air that you breathe.