Seeking Silver Linings

Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Looking up NaamaYehuda

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

 

It wasn’t about giving up. It was about silver linings.

Or about looking for them. At least.

Better than seeing the mess inside her mother’s house. The junk that kept arriving, accumulating, suffocating. Better than listening to the endless arguments between her parents. Or to the cries of the neighbor from across the street. The police there every other week. Mostly on payday, when the neighbor’s husband was drunk. Fancy neighborhood. Broken lives.

So, she curled up by the window, eyes to the sky, watching fluffy clouds drifting by.

Perhaps the silver lining will ride in on the next one.

 

 

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers (I mean, how could I NOT participate when Rochelle chose to use one of my photos today?! Happy, healthy, and a BETTER 2021, everyone! And to all the children in homes-of-crisis: Hang in there, it gets better, you are worth it, you are seen!)

 

55 thoughts on “Seeking Silver Linings”

    • Thank you, Neil. For most adults it indeed may be a kind of giving up. For children, however, it may be all they can do to manage, for they cannot remove themselves from a bad situation and often have no legal say in where they live or who the live with … So, they often have to endure, and wait, and hope for better times, which is the opposite of giving up. Thank you for the comment, an may we all have much to hope for and better times to come!

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    • Thank you, Rochelle! Those realities have always been an issue for too many children, but they are amplified by the isolation and added realities of this past year. I can only imagine how difficult it has to be, and how looking outside the window at the sky may be a form of respite, too. Here’s to a better year, and hopefully safe homes for all. XX Na’ama

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    • Thanks, ceayr, yes, times change, and if one hold on long enough, they often can change for the better, if only for the added options that are available once one is no longer a child but an adult who can make their own decisions. Happy and healthy 2021 to you and yours!

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    • Thanks, Dora! Yes, I’m glad she hasn’t stopped looking up, and out, and finding space where she feels there’s none. When you stop finding beauty, and hope, that is really bad indeed. So glad you liked the photo. It was a fun one to take. Aren’t skies amazing!!!?? Happy 2021!

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  9. “Lives of quiet desperation”. How sad when peoples’ values are so misguided. Worse than sad – tragic, rather – when there are no role models for a child to learn sounder values. I hope something happens to rescue your poor protagonist.

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    • Thank you, Penny. Yes, and so many live in these kinds of realities, and hold on – often in quiet desperation – for the possibility of one day being able to escape misery and build a new life that will be totally different and so much better. Some succeed, and for those, the silver lining of their suffering can become the understanding of the value of connection and not taking safety for granted. Some do not succeed, and continue the cycle of the only life they know. All for the tragedy.
      So, yes, I hope something happens to rescue this child, and that they find traction in beauty, in the transient mirror of the ever-shifting sky, and the hope of fair-weather.
      Happy New Year, Penny! May it be all that you wish it to be and then some.
      Na’ama

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    • Ah, indeed, it is very hard. She doesn’t seem to have much choice at the moment (as children rarely do have any choice in any of this), but hopefully she’s hanging in there till she CAN have a choice, and then she’ll move on. Happy 2021 to you, too!

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    • Thank you, Ronda! What a lovely thing to say! 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed this, and … yes, silver linings have a tendency to show up in the rear view mirror, don’t they? 🙂 Happy New Year to you and yours! Na’ama

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  18. Pingback: Grounded – Friday Fictioneers | A Dalectable Life

    • Thank you! Yes, kids are resilient … and vulnerable, both. They can survive a lot, but not unscathed, and we owe it to them to not require them to get so overwhelmed they must resort to coping skills that remove them (mentally) from impossible situations. And … for those whose life demanded employment of such extreme coping skill, we need to be willing and able to provide care and help and therapy and not penalize them for the way they managed to survive.
      Amen to hope.
      Na’ama

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