Lucky or Blessed?

 

Lucky or Blessed?

These days when I have time away from my cancer concerns, we visit friends who also have cancer issues and we talk. Now we talk about fires. A friend’s daughter visiting from Vancouver told us happily that the problem with fires is over. It’s not Global Warming she said. They caught the people who were starting the fires. It was interesting to hear that the authorities caught the people who were starting the fires. They must have been very special to start thousands of fires from Kelowna to the North-West Territories. On their time off, they started fires in Greece, Portugal, Hawaii, the eastern provinces, the Western States, and much more. Global Warming is being blamed also for floods in many places, but perhaps “they” will catch who is doing it soon.

I hope we will catch those guys soon since we have other problems to deal with. The African nations are rebelling against their governments. As people are losing their meager ways to survive through hard work and saving what they can, they do the only other thing they can. Trying to migrate into the more affluent parts of the world is not working, but they still have guns. Give them more time and they will purchase more modern weapons and learn how to use them. We may catch a few careless campers setting fires, but Africa has hundreds of millions of people. Those people know how to build armies, buy weapons, and attack others who accumulate wealth from their resources. Fires, floods, looming wars, and it’s more scary than cancer.

When we see the migrants looking to get in, we wish them to go back to their countries. After all, Africa and other continents are rich in many ways. Why do they not develop their own countries and take care of their people? Because their ex-colonial masters take it all telling them to be happy they have some jobs. Sounds familiar.

I remember some sixty years ago or more when those countries were fighting for independence. The colonial masters figured it would be cheaper to join the freedom fighters and rule remotely. One after the other, the leaders of independence movements mysteriously found help in the old colonial powers. France trained a presidential guard to keep a powerful family in Gabon in power for years in exchange for resource exploitation contracts. It only worked until now when Global Warming is reducing people’s ability to produce and purchase food. Now Gabon is the latest African country to rebel against their government and lock up the president.

We have a worldwide problem. The Particulates that are produced by burning things act as a blanket over the planet, keeping heat in. It’s a blanket that we can’t take off. Droughts and dryness caused by heat lead to more burning, increasing the problem. When the hot air meets cooler temperatures, it releases the collected moisture, leading to floods in places we never imagined. Governments are responding to public pressure and helping the devastated areas. None of us knows if we will not be next.

The money that we spend on fighting fires and floods is not available for regular government expenses or to help those affected by the droughts and floods, which brings food insecurity and makes people consider war as a possible solution. I end up thinking that perhaps dying from cancer will be easier than living in the world we made so hostile.

Looking through my window, I see paradise and realize that for some reason my community of the Crowsnest Pass is doing very well compared to the world I see on the various news. I go for a stroll downtown and notice how the community picked up in the last little while.

Some people believe in luck. Am I and so many others lucky to have cancer, heart problems, and other issues? Of course not. But we are here and even with governments that have been causing problems to our healthcare system over and over, we still have a great system. We have a problem with Global Warming but here the climate is moderate and even the winters are fun. Yet, how often can a person be lucky? I choose to skip the popular idea that we are lucky and change the word to “blessed.” You can be lucky only sometimes. The casino always wins, but you can be blessed all the time. It has something to do with the Universal Mind that governs the universe.

Ours is a place where there are many faiths living in harmony with each other. I am starting to consider that perhaps the Universal Mind, or God as I call it, is using us to demonstrate a point. Here there are older folks who worked underground and lived modestly. Their children built a community that is resourceful and welcoming. Others noticed it, and the natural beauty, and moved in. It is not the playground of the rich, but life here is more attractive than in the cities and their bedroom communities.

Each day I meet kind and helpful residents mixed with a steady stream of visitors who are reading the real estate boards and considering life here.

I place cancer aside and enjoy the place I am in, remembering to be grateful for the blessings. Somehow, the universe knows. I also pray for a tomorrow.