By Becky Nelson
Bramblings
The signs of the Christmas holiday are all around us, and I am completely blessed. I have a loving family, a business I love, land passed to me from multi-generations before me, a legacy to pass on to my own. I have amazing friends and acquaintances, exceptional employees, good health, my mental faculties, and I feel relatively safe and comfortable in my surroundings.
I try not to focus on the news of late, as it scares me a little bit. The arrest of three people in a burglary in a Newport neighborhood just a couple of miles from us as the crow flies gives me pause. Just a couple of weeks ago, during a snowstorm, we had three people wandering around part of the farm, we think looking for things to steal. The power was out that night, and lots of our buildings were in the dark save the houses that all have generators. The car pulled into our driveway, then turned around and headed to the farmstead. It pulled in there, then turned out and headed for the field where the raspberry patch is. Two people got out of the car and walked up to the storage trailer at the patch, we assume looking for anything of value they could steal. My son called me from the farm, asking if I knew of any reason there would be people walking about in the snowstorm. I got a bit rattled, and we called the police. The people were spooked when my son followed them and the police showed up with lights flashing, and the police tracked the people through the snow behind a couple of homes and businesses back to the roadway and they were never found.
When the recent arrest of three men for burglary, one of whom was spotted “lurking around” a home and posted on social media was announced, I can’t help but wonder if they were the ones “lurking” and poking around here at the farm. We are now installing cameras and are trying to keep as safe as we can from others trying to take from us as the world around us seems to become a less safe place.
Owning a retail shop, I know we occasionally have a shoplifting problem, but the brazen invasion of a person’s home is horrifying. It is happening all across the nation, as well as horrifying murders and violence for seemingly no reason. It is hard to think of peace and love and joy and hope that the season brings when learning of horrible crimes and people hurting, killing or terrorizing others. I don’t understand the mindset that leads a person to hurt another, and I am blissfully blessed by never having endured the pain, anguish or terror of being the victim of a crime. I have had close scrapes with people in “near misses” with someone trying to take advantage when I was in college, with near-thefts here at the farm in the past and this most recent episode, and with road-rage incidents both in the neighborhood and when on vacation, and with family members suffering domestic harm. I was scared by these incidents and the harms that have come to people I know, and am thankful and blessed that I have never endured worse.
As I look at my Christmas tree and the blossoming Christmas cacti in the house, I try to remember some of the religious lessons that the Christmas story highlights: the kindness of others toward those in need like the innkeeper to Mary and Joseph, the faith of people in one another like the magi who brought gifts to baby Jesus, the hope of the common folk in a brighter future like the shepherds in the field. I also try to put things in perspective as the family of Jesus was in a power-imposed census that uprooted their daily lives and sent them on a difficult trek to make those in power happy and the later search for the baby and quest to kill him and all children under the age of two who threatened the power of the King. The struggles of Jesus later in life as he threatened the authorities in power that led to the ultimate act of violence in his crucifixion, a brutal, violent and inhumane punishment and through it all … hope and a promise of better things to come.
The news around me may be dark and violent, there are many who suffer greatly and are in a world of hurt and darkness, and there are always people who hurt other people. Through it all, I choose to focus on the light, the Christmas promise, thankfulness for all I have, and the hope for a better world to come. I wish the same for all. Please enjoy your holidays and look for the light.
Becky and her husband Ben own Beaver Pond Farm in Newport, NH where her family has farmed since 1780. You can reach her at [email protected].
