BEAUTY FROM DISASTER by John S LES
Everyday in life we are challenged by life itself. Not all of us face the same challenges, and not all people react the same to some of the same challenges. Whatever challenge that may be easy for one young man to solve, may be difficult for his own brother to resolve.
That being the case, how can we ever expect for two completely different people to react the same way in resolving a common problem? When a physical or emotional trauma strikes someones life, sometimes we take for granted that these traumatic experiences can be overcome. Sometimes they can. Sometimes they cannot. Sometimes they simply continue to affect us in ways that we cannot understand for the rest of our lives.
Yet life demands that we find a way to survive. Survival is how we all got here. Someone before us, in our gene pool had to overcome something in order to survive and our present existence is based on that forefather's survival.
The picture above could simply be perceived as cute, or funny or ingenious. It is a real picture taken from a house near my neighborhood. My perception of this picture is that I see a home residents in love with keeping their once gorgeous tree alive on their property. But in order to survive new construction around their house, they had to adapt. Rather than cutting the tree down, they carefully constructed their home fence through the tree. It was a beautiful idea...up until a year ago when hurricane Sandy struck.
Soon thereafter, Sandy destroyed what was left of their once magnificent tree. Rather than lament about the final loss of the tree, the homeowners adapted and made the tree into a beautiful and unique three tier flower pot stand. To the bitter end, they have found meaning in a tree that they loved so much. Such a simple example, yet so many ways that it's genius can be recycled throughout our lives.
It is said that when life give us lemons, we make lemonade. When life throws a negative or disastrous challenge in front of us, we have to remember to work and recycle that negative back into a positive and productive outcome.
Love can come and go. No matter how long love lasts, a week or a lifetime, it will always end sadly in this life. It is up to us to give our loves and our losses positive meaning and develop the understanding and appreciation of the positive impact of that experience.
