Nature’s Mirror

We read in our newspapers and watch people on the television, struggling to combat the effects of one of the harshest winters in the northern hemisphere for many years. Why is it that after so many mild winters, particularly in England, suddenly Mother Nature has turned nasty and is interfering with everyday existence in such an extreme way? People cannot get to work, schools are closed and newspapers vie with one another to detail the economic cost of the snowstorms. Simple tasks, like posting a letter or running to the local shop, become big decisions requiring planning and forethought. Children are of course delighted and are using their unexpected holiday to enjoy the delights of tobogganing, skating and building snowmen. The photographers too are happy and snap away at the breathtakingly beautiful scenes created by deep snowfalls.

For most adults however and especially those who are homeless, the harsh winter is a bitter and to some, a frightening prospect. We have all been lulled into a false sense of security by a succession of mild winters and have come to expect that to be the norm. Now we have been rudely awoken. How like human life this is! Our lives coast along on an even keel for years, when suddenly something happens and everything begins to fall apart. The security we thought we had is compromised and all the things we prized and took for granted as being solid and dependable become ephemeral, or even unimportant in the light of the challenge thrown our way.

We no longer know what to trust and what not to trust, our priorities are often stood upon their head and it seems at first overwhelming. That is until we begin thinking constructively and accept things have changed and we need to adapt our lives to those changes, for the reverse is impossible. We begin to realise that we had been coasting along so comfortably, as though on automatic pilot and just allowing life to wash around us with little or no input from our selves. It seems very enjoyable at the time but we are not meant to lie back and be passive all the time. We are on earth to learn from all manner of experiences that we undergo. If we have arrived on what appears to be a plateau when we can take it easy and all our basic needs are met, then instead of lying back and taking it easy for a lengthy period, maybe we should be asking what we can do for others who are struggling.

If we take positive action to use the spare time life has given us to help others, then I believe we will continue to progress and grow in strength and experience. We will still be thrown unexpected challenges, but having remained active, we will have the wherewithal to face and overcome them. On the other hand, if we idle our time away, making no effort to help others, sooner or later our own personal snowstorm will arrive. We will be snowed in and because we have been idle and allowed our mental, emotional and spiritual muscles to atrophy, we will find it difficult, indeed well nigh impossible, to even move the snow from our front door, let alone walk to the local shop in order to restock the larder

Extreme weather gives us many challenges, some at a personal level and others at the community level. We have to face the fact that certain arrangements we may have made to do with business or family have to be changed. Appointments cannot be kept perhaps; money due to us is delayed; we have to walk instead of driving and work out if disruption is to be lengthy, how we are to manage to get food and carry it home. Our gas or electricity supplies may be disrupted and we have to face preparing food and keeping warm as our grandparents did. It is all new, challenging, maybe a bit frightening but it certainly brings us to life. We have to learn to cope without the telephone perhaps and certainly without television and the computer.

At a community level there is the obvious challenge faced by those who are employed by the community, to do all they can to minimise the effects locally. There will be some people who are living so close to the breadline that the extreme weather is the final straw for them. There is a community challenge therefore to work out and implement a scheme for helping these people: The youth to be encouraged to check on the well-being of the elderly and infirm perhaps: Efforts made to encourage fit people to visit their older neighbours to offer them help and companionship. Finally there is a need to learn patience and resignation – some things cannot be changed, so we must adapt to the new circumstances, make new plans and not become mired in a morass of self pity.

Mother Nature is truly a caring parent. She knows the need for flexibility, for bending with the wind and for keeping the ‘muscles’ of all our ‘bodies’ exercised. She knows that life is about vigilance and that progress requires change. By keeping ourselves in harmonious contact with her, instead of isolating our selves by burying our heads in the sands of habit and self-satisfaction, we will remain fit and strong to meet all the challenges life throws at us, physical, emotional, mental or spiritual. Oh yes nature’s mirror reflects life – all of it!