Family Crisis

When asked to create a list of family crises, I honestly thought that my list would be extremely small.  I have been blessed throughout my life to not have many great stressers in my immediate family.  However, the list ended up being bigger than I thought as I pondered on what really makes a crises.  In some cases, I had written off a stressful experience of my family in my mind either because the issue had been resolved with time or my family had dealt with the problem well.  In those cases, the stress from the event was somewhat lifted from my mind, and I hardly thought of it as a family crisis. 

Take, for instance, when I was in 7th grade and the mountain near my community caught fire.  I live in LA county, so wildfires in October are not all that uncommon.  However, this fire was very near my house and we stood a chance of loosing everything.  I can still remember the ash falling like snow, coating the pavement and grass.  We had to wear masks to protect our lungs.  I had a moment akin to the scenario often given in school or church where you are in a crisis and can only choose a certain number of things to take with you, so you must choose the most important.  Well, my mom gave us each a trash bag and said, "Fill the bag.  Take only what's most important."  We packed up the van with each of our precious trash bags, all the photo albums and home videos, all the bills and files, everything we could.  Then we waited.  Waited to see if the firemen could redirect the fire.  In the end, the community was saved.  Though, as I learned later, we were most likely not in tremendous danger.  The builders of the community had taken precautions against the wildfires prone to the area, planted fireproof vegetation and such.  However, there was a slim chance that something could have gone wrong.  Our street was under voluntary evacuation and the street below us was under mandatory evacuation, after all. 

I think what made the experience not seem like a crisis in hindsight was the fact that my parents chose to have a very light mood about it all during and after the event.  My dad kept making jokes and tried to get us to laugh.  He kept assuaging our fears, always saying that nothing would happen, we were safe.  My mom was very practical about it all.  The packed-up van was just a precaution, she said to us.  I think the light mood helped immensely in our dealing with the problem.  And that's often how my family undergos trials: with a smile.  In that way, my mind often does not see crises as others might.  I see them as ways in which my family is brought closer together.