Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall

Rain, as I am sure you know, in that common metaphor refers to adversity.
Adverse events often happen to us while we plan out what we really want to happen in our lives. It is how we handle those adverse events in our lives that determine how strong each of our human spirits will become.

Adversity in one’s life can make or break a person’s body, mind and spirit. The person who rises above adverse circumstances in their life is a spiritually stronger person than someone who has always had everything come smoothly to them in their life.

Today in the world we live in now, the ‘rich and famous’ Martha Stewart is an example of an individual, who had everything in life but suddenly faced an adverse, life-altering event. She rose spiritually above her adverse circumstances. Ms. Stewart, who was a stockbroker herself in her younger years, was convicted in a well-publicized case of receiving ‘insider’ information on a stock so she knew when to sell her stock before the price fell. Her conviction resulted in her being sent to a federal prison located in rural West Virginia to serve out a five-month sentence.

In a statement issued after her release Martha Stewart said that she spent part of her time in prison thinking about her experience and writing about it. She went on about how bad the food was in prison so once she was released she now had a base to compare her rich life against what many less fortunate individuals have to eat compared to herself. She went further to state that she walked and exercised while in prison. Both of these activities help both the human body and the human spirit to bear up under adverse conditions. While she was in prison Martha was assigned to do common household chores, vacuuming and washing floors. A woman of Martha Stewart’s social status never does housework. I hope Martha also learned humility from having to do these common chores.

During her five months in prison Martha Stewart made friends with several of her fellow inmates. After her release from prison she has become an advocate for federal sentencing guideline reform particularity for drug offenders who she feels would be better served by rehabilitation than being incarcerated. Thinking about the misery of others shows how Martha Stewart’s spirit has grown in strength from her five month stay in prison.

After her release from prison Ms. Stewart looked back on her experience and did make the statement to the press that her experience was “life altering and life affirming”. This statement tells me that she grasped the positive side of her adverse experience.
Her spirit soared to new heights, and she resumed her career with her head held high.

Today I doubt that many people remember that the rich and famous Martha Stewart of both TV and magazine fame once served time in prison. When a person handles adverse events in their life as Martha Stewart handled hers, they find that most people forget the negative side of the event.

Each of us, whom has grown strong in the spirit, has had to overcoming adversity.
For myself it was a six-year struggle caring for my beloved mother whom I knew was terminally ill. I wanted to keep her on this earth as long as it was possible.

After my mother passed to God’s care I resumed my former life, working outside of my home, and continuing my education. Seven years later I was again faced with an adverse, life-affirming event in my life. Through an accident, 4 of the discs in my lower spine were severely injured. Once again I didn’t lose my faith in God. All throughout my life I have been a big fan of talking to God on a daily basis. He came through for me through another person who also believes in Him. Through this second person I found a doctor who was successful in repairing my discs so I was able to resume my life, once again. There was a ten-year gap in time from the day I was injured, to the day I realized that I was finally fully recovered. My spirit held me together; I never lost my faith in God throughout my personal ordeal.

Today my spirit is high on life, I know from the experiences of others, and from my own experiences that adverse events in our lives shape who we are in the spirit. While some rain must fall in each of our lives the positive effect of adversity, for each of us, is the strengthening of each of our eternal spirits, our eternal souls.

This story contains some true life events from my life.
Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra

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Que Sera, Sera...so why worry?

Que Sera, Sera, what will be will be, so why worry?
Live each day as though it is the last day of your life! Live in the moment!
This is the message that bombards all of us in the here and now of 2010.
We can’t change the world so why bother to try to change it? Even religious leaders have been heard, in these modern times, to utter the phrase; ‘live in the moment’.
Is it prudent to live for the moment, and not care about tomorrow?
Is not caring about what tomorrow will bring what is meant by the phrase ‘live in the moment’?

I think it is not a good idea to live just in the moment without giving thought to what tomorrow will bring our way. If we don’t make the changes today that are necessary to secure our future, our tomorrows may never come. We may not be able to stop oil spills from happening but we should insist that Congress put into action laws that strengthen how wells, especially wells dug a mile deep on the ocean floor, are dug. Methods of drilling on land are not good enough methods for drilling in the ocean. Thinking ahead of what ‘could’ happen is what has to be the motto for any endeavor that is undertaken in difficult to reach places.

We can’t do anything about volcanoes that erupt and spew ash into the atmosphere blocking out the sun’s rays stopping sunlight from reaching the earth.

Scientists have posed the theory that it was a massive volcanic eruption, thousands of years ago, that blocked the suns radiation from reaching the surface of the earth, the earth cooled, green plants couldn’t produce chlorophyll so they died off, animals that fed off the plants died off from lack of food, and animals who fed on the plant eating animals, died off because they had nothing to eat. Volcanic eruptions that spew ash into the atmosphere miles above our heads, thus blocking out the sun, is a happening that we can’s do anything to stop from happening. Perhaps in this case we can say; “Que sera, sera, what will be, will be.”

Back when I was born in May 1944, the world was no longer innocent. Two world wars had been fought. Millions of innocent beings had been led to their deaths in Europe, not believing that other humans could do such things to other humans; to innocents. Greed was at the center of both of these wars. Greed for more, and desire of what others have was what fueled both world wars.

Greed is what fuels what goes on today in Africa where male children as young as seven years old and upward in age to the teens, are kidnapped from peaceable villages where they were raised by loving parents, trained to be soldiers by the kidnappers, and forced to fight to the death against others whom they have no grievance against. Is this behavior of kidnapping innocents and forcing them to work for nothing any different for Africans today from the time, long ago, when these people were kidnapped by their own, sold as slaves to Europeans in return for gold coins, and shipped to far off lands where they were forced to work for others but never shared in the gifts that came from their labors. Is it any different today, in the here and now of 2010?

To the victors go the spoils. Is that phrase familiar to you? It means simply that those who win take all that had belonged to those they have vanquished, killed in the battle. This is the same today as it was two thousand years ago when the spoils of war were simpler real property, wearable and useable art, stores of and fields of eatable grain.

Will we humans ever learn that we are all here by the grace of God, and it is His Will to determine if we will survive to live our tomorrows. It is by God’s grace that we are still here today; but be warned, volcanic eruptions, oil spills, earthquakes and tornadoes are all within God’s will to control. How many warnings will He give us before we all stop being so greedy and start sharing with those of his children that have less than we do?

Que sera, sera, what will be, will be.

Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra
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