Tears and Turning for Trees

When my husband came back from walking the dogs this morning, he told me about another lot they were clearing in our neighborhood.

I had just discovered the woods behind here this spring and was excited for a new place to walk in nature. Oh well......

I couldn’t help it.

I started to cry.

I’m sure I’ll die first because I don’t think I was meant to live in a world moving so fast.

I intended only to think this thought, but realized I had said it out loud.

Grabbing something to toast for breakfast, he chuckled. He didn’t try to comfort me. No hug or caring shoulder rub. He went about his morning routine like any other day. He’s used to the rollercoaster of feelings I’ve been riding. We traded our idyllic New Hampshire horse farm dream for a post-COVID, easy-going retirement life in a Florida equine community, which crashed and burned, literally in some ways. And now, in Coastal North Carolina, I am digging through the rubble, trying to make sense of it all and find purpose in what’s left from the excavation.

I pushed my emotions aside and moved to the dining room table to address a large stack of paperwork. Tears subsided, and I shoved my feelings into an already bursting closet of sentiments that have been growing over the years.

We live in the fastest-growing county in NC, and the 11^th fastest-growing in the United States. My errands and trips to the grocery store used to take me on roads lined with tall pine trees and greenery everywhere.

Now it is filled with tree-stripped dust bowl lots, structures filling holes that have been made.

We haven’t even been here two years.

Can it all just stop?

Can we all just stop for a minute?

With all these things deemed progress, has anyone taken a moment to reflect on where we were and where we are today?

Has anyone assessed how these advances in society are serving us?

Are we truly better off?

Any information we want is at the tip of our fingers, waiting to be found in a flash.

We have the capability to stay connected to others, no matter where they are, at any time of the day or night. Resources for our needs have advanced exponentially. Scientists can identify microscopic organisms and pinpoint diseases. Surgeons have replaced diseased hearts and developed a method to use joysticks in detail-oriented procedures. Veterinarians surgically repaired a monarch’s wing.  Artificial organs, targeted therapies, lab-grown blood, devices we can wear or have implanted to help our health – this is stuff out of the sci-fi movies we watched as kids. (a)

Yet, it seems suffering in society is at an all-time high. Fifty-two percent of the world’s population and seventy-four percent of adolescents are struggling with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.(b)

Let’s be honest, we don’t need to do a Google search to see this unfold around us. You don’t have to follow the news to see stories, almost daily, of suicide, mass shootings, and countless tragedies attributed to some form of mental collapse.

It seems an infinite amount of building is happening, and it is parallel to immeasurable breakdown in our culture.

What has happened to personal and communal values and virtues? Civility, personal responsibility, empathy, tolerance, honor, respect. What has shifted so drastically that those traits are no longer as common as they once were? ©

Centuries ago, life was centered around community, and communities were centered around faith. Differing faiths caused separation, yes, but they shared similar values. Values that were rooted in belief in something greater than earthly existence.

The cost of the rise of individualism is the loss of connections in community. You cannot serve yourself first and expect a community to be strong. The discourse that is running rampant in our world stems from the disconnect from the divine.

My beacon to peace is Psalm 46:10 - “Be still and know that I am God.” I have to remind myself that God sees everything that’s happening. He sees the destruction and the desire and knows the distinction of people’s hearts. I have to remind myself of the cyclical history of man – how he turns from God, and then back to Him, only to turn away again.

Where do you go to cleanse your mind?

With every lot that is leveled and every tree that falls, I may still shed a tear. But with every anxious thought that follows, I will persevere in my efforts to remember God’s word in Romans 8:28 – that "all things work together for good.”

I will do my best to share the breadcrumbs God used to lead me back to Him and His comforting arms, because He knew how much I’d need Him, and to then be a light in the world that shines bright enough, it can light a path for others to find their way home. Scriptures are one of my finest silver linings.

(a)20 of the Biggest 21st Century Medical Advancements (2024)

(b)Mental Health Statistics 2025: What the Data Says - United We Care | A Super App for Mental Wellness

(c) Where Have All Our Values Gone? | Psychology Today