Hubs has built me my first fire of the season. Something to warm my toes. It's embers are struggling to catch, the wood is still a bit damp.
Hubs has a few more days, but I was already scheduled to work this weekend and we are short staffed. So back to work I go. By this time tomorrow I will be sitting in a meeting. I will deliberately position myself with my back to the windows. This is the time of year that draws my attention away. This is the time of the year that finds me longing to be outside.
I can be doing anything, as long as it is outside!
Today is finding me feeling apprehensive. Seems our country is suffering greatly. Some of it is natural disasters, some of it human disasters, some of it a combination of both. Briefly heard about the fires in LA (I know it is an almost annual occurrence, but devastating just the same), but only briefly. Because a hurricane rapidly descended on Houston, southern Texas and Louisiana. Causing chaos, destruction and sadly death.
Immediately started to hear about the fires consuming the Pacific Northwest - Montana and Oregon are the first to come to mind. I have family and friends in all of those areas. Somehow, I feel like everyone of us has someone that has been touched by all of these disasters.
Some of those fires were started by nature. Some were started by selfish bored children, that evidently lacked the foresight that their actions would be catastrophic.
I'm no sooner wrapping my mind around all of those things. Checking in with people I know and love, praying they are all okay, when the news starts showing up of another hurricane (actually two). The largest recorded. Barreling down on the Caribbean Islands and it appears heading straight for Florida's eastern coastline. I have many, many friends and family that live in that area. Each time I see a projection I get more concerned. Will they evacuate? Taking their loved ones, pets and basic memories with them? Will they be "brave" and stay? The most recent projection I saw showed it moving north/ northeast and hitting Georgia and South Carolina too.
I haven't been in that position. I've managed to be gone when things like that have occurred. Sure we had an ice storm take our power out a few years back. Lived at the end of a power trunk, we weren't in a critical area, it was in excess of a week. That is what generators are for. It was uncomfortable, definitely inconvenient, but the world didn't end as we knew it. We had to throw out some food, it took a few days to figure out how to keep the turtles warm. But we managed.
Our home and memories were not washed out to sea. Our lives were not in jeopardy. We didn't have to make the heart wrenching decisions to save our families or our pets (for the record, regardless I would find a way to save both - yes I am that person).
We didn't have to watch our lives turn to ashes, literally. We have been near fires, floods, devastation, but by the blessings from God, we've been away from it.
Civil unrest seems to be a bit more of a danger for us. Human disasters.
Sure we get tornadoes and we are right on the fault line if the New Madrid decides to move again, but so is most of the country for that matter. After all they felt it in Boston, New York and at Old Faithful last time it decided to stretch it's muscles. But those things are not that common where we live, the tornadoes come close, we've watched the eerily green sky descend. And we've felt minor tremors, but so far...
The unrest is what worries me. Before heading out on vacation, I received a call from our property management company. Letting me know there would be a safety and security meeting and that I should either attend myself or be sure to send someone.
I was perplexed and had to do a bit of snooping into local news. It seems I tend to ignore local news way too much. One of my b's keeps me in touch with reality most of the time. I had seen the barricades going up in various official places over the week. Although truthfully, it didn't occur to me to question it. I'm a military brat, you get used to seeing barricades installed and become fairly immune to it.
The part that startled me, that lead me to be concerned, was the video I watched. Men and women holding signs, shouting in preemptive protest. Evidently the Jason Stockley trial has finally concluded. There will be a verdict soon. And the potential verdict promises to make the Ferguson riots look like a minor disagreement.
I wasn't there. Not for the shooting, not for the trial. Based on the few things I have managed to find and read, I assure you that I do have a gut feeling. But I wasn't there.
The "activists" and clergy leading that press conference sent chills down my spine. It made me feel a sense of hopelessness for our city and country.
Do I want to believe that the right outcome will happen. Yes I do.
Do I want to believe that these angry people, issuing threats, will believe that the person that was there will make the best decision based on what was presented to them? Of course.
Do I have faith in our judicial system to come to the right outcome? That remains to be seen. The sole decision rests in the hands of a single judge, the former officer declined a jury hearing. Personally, I feel this type of decision needs far more people to be part of the final decision.
Police can be bad people. There is no magic way to know that the person you trust to protect society doesn't really have a personal agenda that they are willing to use that badge to accomplish. History has proven that time and time again.
The people at the press conference have promised destruction and damage. Long term. The Governor has promised the National Guard. None of this sounds like it's going to lead to a peaceful resolution.
The judge has plenty of time yet to decide to announce his decision.
What will it lead to? I work in the heart of where they are promising to shut it down. Will we become an epicenter for more heartbreaking civil unrest? Will the activists be local people representing a wrong? Or will it be like it became in Ferguson, outsiders bused in to meet someone else's agenda.
As I bow my head to pray for each natural disaster, I am also praying for the young man's family. I saw on the news where his family has asked for peace. I am prayerful that this verdict does not rip open a wound that is already far too painful for them. They have lost enough.
There are so many good, kind and loving people here in this area. I am blessed to see it on a daily basis.
There have been many so wrongs on every side of things, wrongs that go back generations. And the struggle to overcome those things is like a slow festering infection.
It seems there is a storm brewing here in the heartland...
Mother nature is stirred up, and it seems like humanity is also.
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