Mother Earth has had plenty of challenges these past few weeks. With the flooding of Houston, the fires raging in the Northwest, and now an impending hurricane in Florida, there’s been a lot of stress.
It’s in these challenging times that we look beyond our political and religious views that have previously been divisive and come together as we focus on survival. Helping each other out in time of need. Because when it gets down to it, we all want the same things- love, security, safety, and health. It’s through the support of one another that we are able to get through these challenging times.
Here in Oregon, the big story of the week was that a 15 year old teen may be responsible for starting the Eagle Creek Fire after throwing fireworks into the dry forest. Over 30,000 acres have burned so far.
I keep thinking about this teen and how he must be feeling now. I would feel so horrible if I had done such a thing. Teens brains are still developing and their prefrontal cortex is not fully developed until their mid-twenties. The teen brain is also wired for more risk taking behavior. You may ask, what is the biological function of that? This helps teens break away from the confines of their parents and starts the individuation process- of becoming an adult.
I’ve seen people attacking this kid on Facebook. It’s easy for us not involved to judge the teen or the parents- didn’t they teach him about fire safety? Or judge society- our kids are so disconnected from nature that they don’t know how to take care of it.
Putting judgement aside, what we really need when we make mistakes is compassion and forgiveness for ourselves and others. This kid will have choices in the aftermath of this. He can take what he’s learned and be stronger because of it and find a way to help others, or go down the dark path of worthlessness and destruction. He may get juvenile detention and decide he is reckless and act out. Or he may head down a darker path at first and find the light later as he matures.
If he can forgive himself and see the lesson learned, then he’s going to be okay. If he doesn’t forgive himself, well… it will be harder to move on.
I feel grateful that that wasn’t my teen that did that. But it could have been any of our teens.
All kids need a place where they can learn and receive compassion and support from each other. If you have a middle school daughter in Portland, I’d invite you to check out my upcoming class:
Girls Rock Empowerment (6th-8th grade)
Thursdays Sept, 21-Nov. 16th, 4:15- 5:30pm
OmBase in Hillsdale
Click here to register
Classes also at Rieke for 4th and 5th grade girls.
Here’s a cool song written about the current challenges the USA has been experiencing with weather: https://rayezmusic.bandcamp.com/track/red-moon-high-tide
Here’s a good blog post titled Restoring the Heart by Boy’s Alive.
Zen Y’all,
Kim
www.Kimdavies.org