Vicissitudes

Have you ever met a distressing situation in life? As personally experienced or one to which you were an unconcerned passerby or another which you had to be an unflinching empathizer?

Getting up from a good sleep; taking a good stretch of those lax muscles; saying probably a word of prayer; rolling before the tubs; setting those empty guts grounded; putting on a sleeve of cover and a belt of confidence: stepping out of that door; many are the issues that a fellow may face. Which may it be?

• The child who lost a bit of count on her “look left, then right then left again before you cross the road” and found herself being the object of a speeding vehicles impact?

• The mother who returned home from work to see her wonderful kids return from school and her honest responsibility to get something to fill those tiny bellies, finds herself on the unfortunate end of a leaking gas cylinder which catches her in a den of fire?

• The 2-year-old girl whose natural developmental progress locates her in the island of curiosity to which end she gulps in some volumes of a stray caustic substance?

• Is it the group of market women selling by the road side who end up as the victims to the failed brakes of a truck?

• The adorable lady who marries at age 26 and at age 32 is still hoping for the first issue only to be met with a miscarriage. What if that miscarriage keeps recurring?

• The cab driver who took a couple of guys on a drive only to be bullied and robbed of his cab and possibly shot in the leg?

• Is it the fires of Australia, the viruses of China, the brutalities of South Africa or the bombings of the middle East?

• The responsible father of three children who sets out to work, pulling all possible strings to make those ends meet and finds himself fall from a height of fifty feet only to be deemed paralyzed for life?

• Is it that good nurse who stands by the client to administer a procedure only to be rewarded with a prick by a needle and later is deemed to have a blood born deadly disease?

• The poor and naive child who gets bitten by a snake on the farm but his relatives for the lack of funds resort to alternative management only for the child to lose a limb in the subsequent days?

How do we react to such situations? Is there more we can do than to say “sorry”? What is entailed in that “more”? As we tender in our final words of condolence, we return to our own struggles. Bearing our own difficulties. In the end, the unfortunate, may in the middle of the misery handle the misfortune in loneliness. Maybe we are just not able to more. Maybe the structure of life and its components, make it not possible.

That old adage, “only the bearer of yolk, knows its …”
May the Gracious Lord in the light of his Mercies, keep all and sundry safe from any adversity. And to those already afflicted, the overflow of strength to stand and conquer in such perilous times be their portion.
If we can do more…Let us extend a more comforting hand. The vicissitudes of life.