Not Just a Granny

Today’s blog is dedicated to the Chilean miners, their families and rescuers.

I, like many others in the world yesterday watched with bated breath as the men who had been trapped thousands of feet beneath the earth were finally, against all the odds, brought to the surface of the earth yesterday!

What a feat!  It must have taken an enormous amount of emotional and mental strength to survive those days buried so far underground, not really sure that you would ever see the light of day again, never mind your loved ones.  Watching the rescue yesterday left me a wreck, I can’t even begin to imagine how they must have felt, the thoughts that must have been going through their minds.

How amazing that they were able to overcome the sheer terror of being trapped so far below the earth, to have the mental fortitude to carve out a routine and create a viable living space for themselves.  It is amazing to me how in the face of extreme adversity the human psyche either sinks or swims!

I guess their lives will now be altered quite radically, as they said in the news, it’s a kind of rebirth….travelling from so far below, not even sure really that they would get to the top and then quite literally being dragged out the womb of the planet….that one man’s jubilation said it all.

Now of course life will never be the same again….they will be heroes for a few days, feted by the media, held up as survivors against all the odds and the awful celebrity that comes with that…..and therein will be the next test of their endurance and ability to withstand the pressure of being in the limelight for a few days, maybe weeks and then us being the fickle public that we are will just get on with our lives and they will largely be forgotten.

I hope that they all do secure a book deal from this ordeal…..hopefully that will generate an income for them that they never need return below as miners.  I hope and pray that their ordeal does’nt affect them later and they suffer unduly from survivors guilt and that they get the right amount of support they will need to adjust back to day to day living. 

“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe”.  Dalai Lama

May they find what they need to cope with the days ahead, bravo to them and to their rescuers.