RADICAL SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE.....

Here we sit, mired in mid-winter blues, grumbling.

The air literally rings with phrases like: “Cold enough for you?” “Will winter actually end this year?” “How come everyone else but me is heading for a warmer climate?” “Why two hard winters in a row?”

And then, and then, news flashes on your TV or computer screen about wildfires very much out of control in south-eastern Australia. You hear the tearful stories of survivors telling of the horror of watching others burn or towns that no longer exist or their house that stands no more.

And then, and then.....that e-mail arrives that puts a face and a name to the headlines......someone you know and admire and value highly has been devastated by the rampaging and racing fires and winds. Such was the case for me this Sunday morning when the Nicholson family of Jugiong Jerseys in a more northerly location reported that the fires are 100 kms from them but winds are blowing them away. They did note that extreme damage had been done to the farm of our friends Robert and Kerrie Anderson of Kingsville Jerseys east of Melbourne. Fences gone, pastures scorched, infrastructure destroyed so quickly. Stories conflict about loss of some stock.

However, they still have their home, their own lives and the their precious daughters and most if not all of their fine dairy herd. Those things cannot be replaced, buildings and fences and pastures can be replaced or will eventually regenerate.

What has seemed horrid and shocking becomes doubly so. You think of Rob’s visit to Canada and the USA on an exchange in mid 1993. What a pleasure it was to have him around and to show him around our land. How people liked him so much and knew that he was made of the right stuff and was destined to be a success. I thought of my only chance to date to meet Kerrie when, as a young married couple, they visited the USA and how I travelled down to Niagara Falls to take lunch with them and visit for a couple of hours. Then watching their daughters grow up in pictures in magazines or in photos brought to world Jersey events by a proud Grand Mother Winsome (Anderson).

It is times like this that one feels frustrated that you’re so far away-so able to do so little to help, to offer any comfort. The crisis has a face and the global news story bears names you know.

It is also at times like these that you are slapped back into the land of the awake. You know you’ll never again gripe and whine and caterwaul and grumble and complain about winter here when summer somewhere else in the global village can turn so ugly. The more appropriate response is to think of those in shock and loss. To remember that there are some aspects of this season that many “love to hate” here in our northern climes that are stunningly and indeed breath-takingly beautiful.
That we have three other seasons that are much easier to take. That “spring-time (while sometimes very late by our standards) has never failed us yet,” and won’t!!

One’s perspective changes again when someone in Oregon who knows the Andersons responds to the news you’ve shared with “Please let us know how we can help!!”
When one of our global Jersey family rejoices we (should) all rejoice and when one of us hurts we all hurt. May that ever be thus and may we also stop and count our manifold blessings every day. That’ll shift our perspective!