And the Show Goes On...

It’s strange how things that seem to be broken find a way of coming back around. After a few days of upheaval and chaos, the project was back into full swing today as if nothing ever happened. A normal number of people came to the clinic, we had prayers on the veranda, people came for food, and there were people hanging out on the bench outside the clinic all day, chattering and laughing. It was almost surreal. But then as I think about it, I don’t know why I didn’t expect it. As I stated before, people here have a resiliency like I have never witnessed anywhere else. When hard times come, they just push forward and carry on. This is a trait I admire deeply and wish I had a little more of. I have to admit to myself that I have grown up having a fairly comfortable life and, because of that, my definition of “hard times” and the way I handle them are vastly different than the way people here define and handle them. It makes me think of all of the times in my life I have heard people in America complaining/ranting about the most seemingly insignificant things (How dare they put half-and-half in my coffee when I asked for skim milk!) and thought, “Are you really letting this ruin your day?”  Now I’m embarrassed because I feel like I’m on the other side of that. Some of the things that I see as being a big deal may not be viewed as such by others. Not that the demolition wasn’t a big deal for all involved – it was. But maybe the way I reacted was a bit more intensely than others did and more than was even warented. I felt like this was surely the end of the project and it happened on my watch. But, nay – the show goes on. For the time being, the project continues to truck along like usual. Thinking about this today has made me aware that more than once this year, I have probably unknowingly complained about something that someone else has thought was an incredibly ridiculous thing to complain about. Maybe something like asking for my own cup that I wouldn’t share seemed like an incredibly spoiled thing. It makes me wonder if we might all be a little less dramatic about all the going-ons of our lives if we lived with a little less material possession. What kind of deeper appreciation for life might prevail if we all experienced a bit of scarcity of necessities every once in a while.