Oh yeah, you bet! From my chair in the kitchen in a house I own,on a an acre of land in a rural hamlet of Southern Ontario, Canada, summer living is indeed easy. Here the most vexing decision I have to make is whether to go to the gym, followed closely by what to make for supper, and then twice a week I wrestle with what to write here in my blog.
It's easy all right. It's easy for me to assume (now there's a minefield of a word - assume!) the role of a wise, loving and responsible parent in responding to the crises in the Middle East and the Ukraine. It's easy for me to imagine a simple corrective strategy: take away their big shiny war toys, separate the combatants and send them to their rooms where they shall remain until such time as they can play nicely and respect the dignity of every human being and the land in which they are blessed to live, making the big shiny war toys obsolete.
Easy? Well yes, but only from my place at the kitchen table. I don't live in either the Middle East nor the Ukraine, or anywhere else ravaged by conflict. I have no personal familial, political or financial investments in the regions. And though the lifeblood of their respective and varied cultures does not flow in my veins, my heart, a mother's heart aches for the children, for all the innocents caught in the crossfire of conflict. I grieve the devaluation of human life and the destruction of the land.
I glimpsed something about what it might feel like to be invaded when thieves broke into my house while we were on vacation some years ago. It's a very dark kaleidoscope of sharp jagged feelings. Vulnerability, outrage and fear come to mind now and my body stiffens at the recollection. But this violation happened only once. It was not a daily, weekly, monthly or even annual occurrence. I can't even begin to imagine that.
In a rural hamlet in Southern Ontario the only invaders I see daily are a family of rabbits, a momma and two little ones, who covet my marigolds. I spy on them as they conduct early morning and evening raids on my garden. Sometimes I've managed to capture the marauders on my camera, clicking off a shot or three.
And that's the way the world
looks from my kitchen today.
It's summertime and the living IS easy.
Thanks be to God.
©2014 April Hoeller
