Twins

An image I saw when last watching BBC News America is lingering persistently. One of the British journalists was interviewing Syrian refugees in a refugee camp in Lebanon. The dire circumstances of strained resources at the camp were even more disturbing because of a recent winter storm that had brought bitter cold and snow. In one of the tents was a young mother with newborn twins. The babies were wrapped with great care in warm blankets and sleeping peacefully, unaware of the brutal reality they were born into. The mother was calm, dignified, saying she prayed that God would bring better days for her family. It was Friday at our house, cleaning day, and our dog had gotten sick and well, that gave even more laundry of her blankets than usual, plus she had kept me up literally all night with her stomach ache. I had finally gotten to sleep at 4:00 in the morning, and by 7:00 she got me up again. Somehow I managed to plow through the mess of soiled blankets, and then just for fun, our cat had gotten ill too with something he ate outside. Boy, so much for buying quality dog and cat food, somehow our animals manage to get into trouble on occasion anyway. Who needs sleep? I felt very determined though not to give up on my all too necessary chores, and I kept thinking of the serene young mother and her two beautiful babies. Her sense of calm, her dignity, it just touched me deeply. I thought of how much she would like to be sure her babies would be warm enough, have enough food, how she would be worried that she may not have enough nutrition or strength to feed her babies. I thought of her other children, her worried husband. It seemed the camp was running short on food, on water, on medicine for the children who were fighting the flu in tents without enough heat. I sometimes mourn the loss of the privilege I grew up with, but I have never gone hungry or even come close to it, I have never been cold, or without proper medical care. I have a cozy home with plenty of food, we have not everything we may want, but we certainly  have more than we need. We live in a modest neighbourhood, on a quiet street with good neighbours, we have a great backyard that gives us an abundance of flowers, berries and vegetables each summer. We have an above ground pool that keeps us cool when the house gets hot, a fireplace that keeps us warm in winter, and we live in peace, without the terror of war and its nightmares of destruction, trauma and death. Whatever I may think I  have had to overcome, whatever I think it is I still have to deal with, it is embarrassingly unimportant in comparison to the mind numbing challenges of living in a refugee camp in winter with two brand new babies. I pray that the young mother's prayer will be answered , and that she and her family may be blessed with a future that will hold hope, peace and the end of the horror the war in their country has brought them. I pray she may have a home again that she can call her own, where she will see her children grow up in peace and all the blessings and promise that gift brings.