TROUBLE IS AROUND THE CORNER, BUT....

Recently a freak storm wrecked havoc over the country – I remember waking up at two am on a Saturday morning to the sound of a storm, a big one. Trees swayed and roof tops creaked. There was no way one could sleep through such a storm. It lasted until morning.

Saturday morning dawned with the tragic news that quite number of fishermen who went out to sea in the night before did not make it back alive. Others were injured and rescued. It drove home the fragility of human life – in a matter of seconds, it could be snatched from us.

On Sunday, we had to attend the funeral of a relative who died in his fifties, leaving his aged mother the heartbreaking task of having to bury her own and only child. Not a dry eye was left in the funeral parlour as the grieving mother stroked her dead son’s head one last time. When it should have been he burying her, it was the other way around.

There have been many news stories of parents having to deal with the death of young children due to dengue. Such unexpected and such devastating deaths that leave the parents shattered. Yet it is a fallen world and we must learn to deal with the nature of a fallen world.

Bad news

The signs of such a fallen world around us can be depressing and heart breaking. There are TV channels that promote heartbreak, murder and mayhem so that their ratings go up. People seem to want more and more are the news that numbs and shocks, no matter how gruesome or terrifying it is. It sells if it shocks. That’s why we have so many mind bending reality shows on TV.

It is more common to hear bad news than good today. You hear of people dying of mysterious diseases, people dying of freakish accidents. You wish you did not have to hear about the rape of the innocent, children molested and killed. You wish you did not have to see such news but it takes place. You want to close your ears but you cannot. Bad news surround our world like a heavy curtain that sits depressingly true. How can we rise above it – we can, if we really put ourselves to it.

We can choose to overcome the evil with the bad. It is a power of choice. You do not have to sit and take it all in. You do not have to tolerate bad news anymore. You can switch off the channel or even become active – thanks to the web, there are so many well known websites where you can make your cause known and garner worldwide support. Many nobodies have done so and ensured that their cause got noted and action was taken.

Human spirit

Some people relish bad news as a habit. They are so used to getting a dose of it with their dinner plate every night. You can choose to deliberately view good news instead of the negative dose. When you make a choice to see what is good, what is pleasing and what uplifts and builds rather than break down, you are allowing yourself not to be coloured by the pain and the negativity that such bad news can bring.

You can choose to view the world your way. The positive stories may not get as much publicity as the negative ones but at least they do still take place. You just have to find which one is positive and which one is not.

Sometimes trouble can be on your door step. You can suffer the most unexpected disaster and it can have a devastating effect from you but the human spirit can always bounce back. We can always choose to make a difference by overcoming whatever that caused us heartache. We cannot mourn or sit still forever. Life is precious and it is up to us to move on. Those who have moved on and picked up the pieces have gone on to do well.

Life is one that must be led with joy and peace – as much as one could. It is within the power of each of us to find that power and to tap into it.