read aloud - cry aloud

I read this book with C today. And I had to stop, because I was crying. Leah's Pony is a lovely story, really, and today it touched my soul profoundly. My eight year old daughter looked at me with concern in her eyes and questioned why I couldn't go on through my tears. "Do you understand what is happening in the story?"
"Yes," she said. "The neighbors are buying all of their belongings for not very much money so that they can give them back to Leah's family." She understood. But she still did not understand why the story was rendering her mother unable to speak. I'm not sure that I completely understand why it was touching me so deeply today.
Perhaps the story of this girl living through the ugliness of the Great Depression drew a parallel for me. I fear for the future of our planet and the future of the country that I call home.
I've been reading again about Permaculture and the hope that comes from simple living in the face of peak oil and global climate change. This is a serious issue, and I know that our way of life must change in order to sustain any life in the future. I also know that currently most Americans are unwilling to make changes in their way of life in such a way that would prevent a serious decline of our quality of life. Perhaps young Leah and her $1 bid for her father's tractor showed me that even outlandish ideas can be accepted by many when they understand the wisdom and the good behind them.
Perhaps it has been far too long since I have seen the miracles that can come out of community. At times the unpleasant noise from our world fails to uplift and support those who need a hand, instead of joining together harmoniously to care for our earth, and each other.
Perhaps I worry that those unspeakably hard times will come to my children. I look at the hardships of the Great Depression. I have heard the stories of my parents' childhoods many, many times, and I know that they and their families lived through that time because of their hard work and communities. I fear that our country especially, and the world at large may be headed toward another Depression. I wonder though, and I worry too that this time around our communities aren't so strong, our survival skills aren't so tough, our good old know how is in trouble. So I read. And I research. And I simplify. I just wonder though if there will be a community like Leah's this time, that can surround and protect those who need a helping hand. I know that I hope so. Spiro. Spero. Now, if I only knew the Latin for Simplify.