HOPE IN THE STORMS OF LIFE
In recent years we have become accustomed to hearing severe weather warnings being issued, predicting the imminent arrival of storms. When the Met. Office issues a Red Alert countrywide it usually includes a warning that high winds, torrential rain and thunderstorms are on the way. Whenever a storm is forecast, structural damage to buildings, power outages, flooding and widespread disruption is to be expected.
DISRUPTION
Disruption is, in fact a definition of the word storm. While many storms can be forecast, enabling people to prepare for their arrival, there are also storms that can arrive unexpectedly. This is particularly true concerning some of the storms of life. For instance, many people have arrived in a doctor’s surgery with what seemed to them to be a minor ailment. However, they have then had the traumatic experience of hearing the doctor explain that the prognosis was not good. This was a completely unexpected disruption to their life. Something that will never be forgotten by many people is a knock on the door by a police officer or member of the clergy bearing news of an accident. The devastated family members whose loved one was so tragically taken could never have expected this news and the resulting disruption to their lives. Many couples who had made plans for their future, settled down and bought a house in which to rear their family, never expected that they and their children would one day be evicted by the Bank or Building Society and end up living in emergency accommodation. This disruption was never expected. Loving parents have seen their teenagers trying to cope with bullying in school. Even when school was over, the harassment continued, on the computer or mobile phone. The parents never realised the extent of the pressure or the toll it was taking on their child until it was too late, and suicide had claimed another victim. The storms of life are many and varied. For instance, countless lives have been disrupted by Illness, homelessness, loneliness, depression, discrimination, poverty, addiction and unemployment.
In recent years we have become accustomed to hearing severe weather warnings being issued, predicting the imminent arrival of storms. When the Met. Office issues a Red Alert countrywide it usually includes a warning that high winds, torrential rain and thunderstorms are on the way. Whenever a storm is forecast, structural damage to buildings, power outages, flooding and widespread disruption is to be expected.
DISRUPTION
Disruption is, in fact a definition of the word storm. While many storms can be forecast, enabling people to prepare for their arrival, there are also storms that can arrive unexpectedly. This is particularly true concerning some of the storms of life. For instance, many people have arrived in a doctor’s surgery with what seemed to them to be a minor ailment. However, they have then had the traumatic experience of hearing the doctor explain that the prognosis was not good. This was a completely unexpected disruption to their life. Something that will never be forgotten by many people is a knock on the door by a police officer or member of the clergy bearing news of an accident. The devastated family members whose loved one was so tragically taken could never have expected this news and the resulting disruption to their lives. Many couples who had made plans for their future, settled down and bought a house in which to rear their family, never expected that they and their children would one day be evicted by the Bank or Building Society and end up living in emergency accommodation. This disruption was never expected. Loving parents have seen their teenagers trying to cope with bullying in school. Even when school was over, the harassment continued, on the computer or mobile phone. The parents never realised the extent of the pressure or the toll it was taking on their child until it was too late, and suicide had claimed another victim. The storms of life are many and varied. For instance, countless lives have been disrupted by Illness, homelessness, loneliness, depression, discrimination, poverty, addiction and unemployment.