It’s been a tough few weeks for families in Australia.
The news has been filled with heart-breaking stories of young lives blighted and even cut short, and while I’m sorry to sound gloomy, these reports have left me with a heavy heart.
In New South Wales, five children died in what appeared to be extreme cases of domestic distress and we’ve been shocked by police statistics evidencing a crime wave amongst kids still at primary school. In Adelaide, up to 21 neglected children were crammed into one house and in the nation’s capital Canberra, four children were found living in squalor and taken into care.
These are the sensational stories that fill the pages of our newspapers, but they reflect a segment of society where people are lonely, hurting and crying out for help – their desperation hidden behind closed doors.
But amidst the doom and gloom, an email landed in my inbox, bringing a ray of hope. The author spoke about community, urging me to see that in the grand plan of the universe, community was always intended to be the safety net. Society’s way of catching us when we fall, comforting us when we hurt, celebrating our joys and sharing in our grief. As we have retreated further and further behind our front doors, counsellors and psychologists have become our shoulders to cry on, where once we might have relied on a friend or neighbour.
The words in the email struck a chord. We need to sow into our communities and cultivate good relationships not only so that we can be there for others, but so that they can also be there in our tough times.
Over the years, dozens of news stories depicting tragic circumstances have drawn my attention. When some terrible event has hit a community, it’s common practice for newspaper reporters to knock on neighbours’ doors gathering information about the victims. Who were they, what were they like, what did they do? Too often, those neighbours will say: “We didn’t know them. They kept themselves to themselves.”
Let’s make an effort to never be people who keep ourselves to ourselves.
The news has been filled with heart-breaking stories of young lives blighted and even cut short, and while I’m sorry to sound gloomy, these reports have left me with a heavy heart.
In New South Wales, five children died in what appeared to be extreme cases of domestic distress and we’ve been shocked by police statistics evidencing a crime wave amongst kids still at primary school. In Adelaide, up to 21 neglected children were crammed into one house and in the nation’s capital Canberra, four children were found living in squalor and taken into care.
These are the sensational stories that fill the pages of our newspapers, but they reflect a segment of society where people are lonely, hurting and crying out for help – their desperation hidden behind closed doors.
But amidst the doom and gloom, an email landed in my inbox, bringing a ray of hope. The author spoke about community, urging me to see that in the grand plan of the universe, community was always intended to be the safety net. Society’s way of catching us when we fall, comforting us when we hurt, celebrating our joys and sharing in our grief. As we have retreated further and further behind our front doors, counsellors and psychologists have become our shoulders to cry on, where once we might have relied on a friend or neighbour.
The words in the email struck a chord. We need to sow into our communities and cultivate good relationships not only so that we can be there for others, but so that they can also be there in our tough times.
Over the years, dozens of news stories depicting tragic circumstances have drawn my attention. When some terrible event has hit a community, it’s common practice for newspaper reporters to knock on neighbours’ doors gathering information about the victims. Who were they, what were they like, what did they do? Too often, those neighbours will say: “We didn’t know them. They kept themselves to themselves.”
Let’s make an effort to never be people who keep ourselves to ourselves.
Deborah
