What a horrible tragedy! I'm talking about the earthquake and the tsunami that happened in Japan recently. An unbearable catastrophe..... like everyone else, I am shocked by magnitude of the disaster.
Are you finding yourself mesmerized by the footage from Japan right now? The videos of the tsunami that have been circulating across the internet... the indelible images of the devastation left behind. We watch, minute by minute, hour by hour, for days at a time, as new stories emerge, as older stories are re-told and replayed over and over.
What a terrible, terrible thing to happen.
To be an educated citizen, it is important to keep up with the news from the rest of the world. It is important to know about political upheaval, natural disasters, train wrecks, bombings and all the other urgent news of the day. It is important to know where you can help in any little way.
But the constant 24 hour coverage of news from across the globe leaves us spinning. Constant exposure to the news(or whatever you might call the media coverage) threatens the internal peace and security of the people in your home. Children (and adults) are having nightmares about monster waves or wars. Children especially need a place where they feel safe and secure. But we adults need that too.
To have a peaceful heart and home though, I think it is MORE important to learn to manage that media coverage. It is too easy to become obsessed with the videos and stories.
While it is a priority to know about problems and do what I can to help, it is critical that my family home be a haven for the people who live here.
I learned this lesson years ago at the beginning of the Iraq war.... we were fixated on the television... wanting (almost NEEDING) to catch every bit of the drama unfolding... We had been watching for hours, when he walked up to the television, turned it off and said.... we know the news. We know what is happening. But it doesn't need to happen all day in our living room. Wow! Out of the mouths of babes!
For me, it was a wake-up call. A call to focus on what is real and in front of me right now. A call to pray, a call to send money..... and a call to take care of my own little corner of the world.
My laundry still needs doing, my family still needs to be fed, I still need to exercise and pay my bills. So... OFF with the television and OFF with the computer.... time to take care of my own living room.
And I can catch up on ALL of the world's crises a little bit later.... a little bit at a time.
Kay :-)
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