Find Your Peace

A Zion National Park View
Springdale, UT

My mother scarred my siblings and me when we were children. At breakfast or in fact any meal she would say "eat all of your food so you don't get tuberculosis". That was the root cause of our general anxiety disorder, tuberculosis.

Years later as I was doing ancestry research, I discovered that yes indeed there was a tuberculosis (TB) asylum in Ponce, Puerto Rico. In 1933 there were 337 deaths reported in Puerto Rico stemming from tuberculosis. Puerto Rico had one of the highest fatality rate in the world. By 1944 the mortality rate from TB dropped by nearly 80% as a result of public health efforts.

While I no longer worry about TB, I do take heed to public health warnings. I do so because it also allays my fears with facts about something I know nothing about. While I pray, I also pay attention to known science for my safety and well being.

It's spring time now for us in TX. Usually it signals a time of rebirth for me and renewed optimism; I simply am not a winter person. Spring affords me days to discover my surroundings and to observe nature. Nature enables me to reconnect with whats beautiful and allows me to see beyond what's inside my head. It's as if I can see the possibilities of life and what has been placed in it for me to enjoy.

So to reduce my childhood anxieties, I've relied on nature and later on in life photography to channel my anxiety into something positive. Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to sanitize myself and meet several of my clients in Las Vegas area. After my work was done, I headed to Zion National Park and acquainted myself with the peace of nature, reconnect, and find my inner solace. Find an activity to quite your anxiety these next few weeks and don't forget to eat all of your food just in case my mother was right.