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Tag Archives: Facing adversity

Year 2016: Reflections

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in United States

≈ 35 Comments

Tags

California, Facing adversity, Family, U.S. politics, U.S. Wars of Terror, Year 2016

happy-new-year-2017

 

Year 2016 began with the death of my friend and neighbor Benny on January 4. Every day, I looked out onto our desolate courtyard. Gone were the moments spent with Benny, his wife, and their nature-loving daughter.

I wasn’t alone in my grief. In the Middle East where our endless wars of terror ground on without mercy, death was everywhere. No family was spared. Collective grief saturated the air. Wailing mothers shattered the light. Traumatized orphaned children roamed the rubble of a stolen future.

How many more people must lose their homes, their livelihoods, and their loved ones for our freedom, comfort, and security? What are the consequences for the pain we inflict with impunity on women, children, and other civilians? Where is our moral compass?

The disintegration of my son’s marriage came two days after the news of Benny’s death. After my emotional struggle to let go of my son, his sudden return home disrupted the space (emotional and physical) I had created for myself in his absence. Watching my son’s battle to realign his life, while still clinging to his love for his estranged wife, frittered away at my inner peace.

During our 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, I observed the disintegration of our two-party political system. Both parties were in crisis. My disappointment at having my favored candidate lose the nomination for the Democratic Party shattered my hope for meaningful change. Whichever presidential candidate won the top post meant a loss for we the people.

The discovery of cancer cells in one of her lungs turned the life of a close friend on its head and threw mine off balance. Over the months that followed, experimental and other treatments didn’t prevent the spread of the cancerous cells to other areas of her body. Cancer sucked the joy from the time we spent together.

During his bid for the presidency, the Republican candidate unleashed cancerous cells of bigotry, hatred, misogyny, and xenophobia. This virulent cancer infected the heart and lungs of our nation. Millions of Americans can’t breathe under oppressive police force and an economic system that puts profits before people.

While we fought each other over our perceived differences and imagined threats, Year 2016 was the hottest year since NASA started recording global temperatures 136 years ago. In California, we entered our sixth year of drought. We also battled 7,200 wildfires that burned almost 570,000 acres across the state. Ice sheets on land and sea continued to melt at rates faster than those predicted by our climate scientists.

Thanks to my sons, supportive neighbors, and friends, I have survived the dark days of Year 2016. I send out a big ‘thank you’ to my blogger friends who brightened my days and buoyed up my belief in our human capacity for compassion and love for the other. Working together, we the people have won many battles in Year 2016 across America and worldwide against powerful transnational corporations who put their profits before life. We cannot give up.

We Shall Overcome

09 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Social Injustice, United States

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Black History Month, Civil Rights Movement, Facing adversity, Social injustice, United as one, We shall overcome

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom - 28 August 1963We’ll walk hand in hand.
Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights Leaders
March on Washington D.C. for Jobs and Freedom – 28 August 1963
Photo Credit: Parade Magazine (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In the United States, we observe the month of February as Black History Month. Officially begun in 1976 as part of America’s Bicentennial commemorations, it’s a time set aside each year to honor the accomplishments and contributions of black Americans in diverse areas throughout America’s history.

As a Caribbean immigrant, I celebrate the progress African Americans have made since the abolition of slavery and their long struggle to end racial segregation. In the 1960s, the rallying song of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968), “We Shall Overcome,” spread across the United States to the Caribbean Region and around the world.

In my homeland, then known as British Guiana, the song became part of our struggle to free ourselves from the oppression of the British colonial government. After years of racial unrest and violence between the majority black and East Indian populations, we gained our independence in May 1966. But, as so often happens in our imperfect world, we freed ourselves from one master only to gain another.

The struggle continues.

This Black History Month, inspired by the lyrics of “We Shall Overcome,” I dedicate this poem to my black, brown, and white brothers and sisters who face adversity and social injustice across our great and rich nation.

Food taken from the mouths
of hungry children
is given to wealthy farmers.
We shall overcome, some day.

Jailed for petty crimes, families broken
Bankers go free
for gambling with our homes.
We shall overcome, some day.

The elite grab the giant share
of the fruits of our labor
and throw us the crumbs.
We shall overcome, some day.

Our air, water & food
poisoned for profit
setting the course for our extinction.
We shall overcome, someday.

We are traitors & terrorists
for exposing crimes against humanity
and tortured in jail.
We are not afraid, today.

Our sons & daughters
wage wars in distant lands
spreading democracy & freedom.
We shall live in peace, some day.

I do believe
with all shades of the human race
united as one
We shall overcome, some day.

Giving Thanks

24 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in United States

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

Duality of life, Facing adversity, Giving thanks, Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving

 

On Thursday, 28 November 2013, Americans come together as a nation to celebrate Thanksgiving Day: A time to give thanks for God’s benefits on our nation and in our lives. Giving thanks may be far from our thoughts as we continue to live in uncertain and difficult times. Several people I know are facing adversity.

I give thanks for dark days; only then am I able to appreciate all that is good.
I give thanks for helplessness; it forces me to find my strength.
I give thanks for defeat; I learn not to underestimate my opponent.
I give thanks when I am in need; I learn to receive from others with an open heart.
I give thanks for the times I fail; success becomes mine to savor.
I give thanks for my fears; only then can I be truly courageous.
I give thanks when despair clouds my vision of tomorrow; hope is born.
I give thanks for my loss; I learn to appreciate the people in my life.
I give thanks when I’m brought to my knees; therein lies the path to humility and  compassion.
I give thanks for rejection and abandonment; I am filled with universal love.

Life abounds with duality. We cannot exist without the influence of the negative and positive forces of Nature. We have to accept the good with the bad. With birth comes death.

The consequences of the insatiable greed of the powerful, minority elite teach us the value of sharing wealth among all citizens. The destruction of our planet in our frenzy for more and more stuff teaches us what is truly important in our lives. Empires have risen and fallen. In refusing to learn from the lessons of the past, we rush headlong toward the abyss.

I give thanks for those individuals among us who risk their freedom and security to stand up to those in power in defense of humanity and the planet we all call home.

A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever. The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises… What was will be again; what has been done will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun. Take anything of which it may be said, ‘Look now, this is new’. Already, long before our time, it existed. Only no memory remains of earlier times, just as in times to come next year itself will not be remembered.
Ecclesiastes 1: 4 & 9-11

The Cashew Tree: Lessons in Facing Adversity

24 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Brazil, Nature and the Environment

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Cashew nuts, Cashew tree, Facing adversity, Fortaleza/Ceará, Northeast Brazil

Largest Cajueiro in the World - Natal - BrazilWorld’s Largest Cashew Tree – Natal – Northeast Brazil

Source: braziltravelbuddy.com

Trees have always fascinated me. In my native land, Guyana, fruit trees abound and flowering trees lined the main avenues of our capital, Georgetown. They beautified our city and brightened my life. Before I was born, their robust trunks had withstood the forces of Nature. They will continue to stand tall and radiant long after I have passed away.

When we moved to Fortaleza (CE), I fell in love with the cashew tree: o cajueiro (ka-ju-ay-ru). Native of Northeast Brazil, it flourished in the hot tropical climate and sandy soils of the region – responsible for over 95 percent of the nation’s cashew production. They are cultivated commercially for the production of cashew nuts, one of the major exports of the State of Ceará to the United States. The shape, vivid colors, and nut of the caju (ka-ju) became a new fascination. The pseudo-fruit made a delicious juice rich in vitamin C, calcium, phosphorous, and iron.

Cashew Fruit and Nut - BrazilCashew Hanging from Tree (Source: afe.com.br)

Most of the cashew trees in our condominium rose to only two stories high. About twenty feet away from our third-floor apartment stood the largest cajueiro, four stories tall. During our early years, the tree seemed stunted: little foliage and no fruit. On sleepless nights, I would stand at my bedroom window and look out onto the still, quiet night. The cajueiro was my only companion: a witness to my desperation after I was left alone to raise my sons in a foreign country. Although it no longer bore fruit, the cajueiro stood tall and strong. If I were to succeed in providing for myself and sons, I had to remain grounded; to stand tall and strong.

Time passed. When afflicted and broken, I observed the cajueiro with its scanty crown. It reminded me that, when faced with obstacles and setbacks, I had to focus on building fortitude for survival and on developing as a professional.

Then one year, a miracle happened. A deluge inundated the canals and streets of drought-prone Fortaleza. The cajueiro came to life. New leaves and blossoms sprouted. Over the following years, its crown filled out and expanded. Fruit adorned its limbs.  Boisterous birds moved in.

The cajueiro extended its limbs towards my window, providing a curtain of foliage outside my window. During the caju season, I could reach out and pick the ripe fruit that hung within my reach.

I, too, had grown: as a mother, provider, and professional. When the opportunity arose for a better position, I was ready to move forward.

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