Sleep

My Thought for the day
I’m sure that many of you have looked at your smart watches to see what your sleep quality was like last night. I don’t own one, as I really don’t understand the reason to check out something you already know! When I waken, I am always aware of how I slept. Watches can chart your sleep patterns and let you know when you had a period of disturbed sleep, What they can’t do, is tell you why it happened.
A question - What keeps you awake at nights?
I have just watched a harrowing BBC news piece on the effects that the current situation in Afghanistan is having on children. There was the normal warning before the story, highlighting that the next report contained scenes some people might find disturbing. That warning did not prepare me for what followed.
I witnessed the life and death of two small children in that three minute clip. I say life, but what I saw could barely be described as life of any quality. A toddler, Tayabullah, barely able to breathe with pneumonia, who died because the hospital wasn’t equipped to save him
A young girl, with a treatable heart condition died because the hospitals supply of oxygen ran out. Every day, 167 children die in Afghanistan from preventable diseases. The life of those on the margins in any conflict situation is challenging at best and life taking at worst.
I had flashbacks to my own experiences 40 years ago in Uganda during a severe famine. I recall with vividness, an experienced nursing sister being reduced to tears as she had to take a decision over which children she would administer the last, precious life saving drip to. I remember the faces of young, compassionate relief workers when they ran out of bags of rice to distribute, and had to tell dozens of hungry parents to come back tomorrow. Many never made it through the night.
You can’t unsee things such as this. They often keep me awake at night as they inhabit my sleeping hours. They also haunt my waking moments. Could I have done more? The rhetorical question many of those in the front line constantly ask.
These are not situations that anyone should have to face in the 21st Century when we have the ability to save millions of such desperate souls – but are rendered unable to assist, due to the impossibility of getting people and provisions to such war torn areas of our planet. But even if we could get the materials and people to the location, that is still only addressing the consequence rather than the cause of our inability to live at peace with difference. Only those who start and maintain the conflicts have the luxury of choice about what happens next. So, if you are a praying person, please pray for those who live as the subjects of someone else’s history.