January 17, 2022 Bristol Edition

 I live in Bristol, TN.  Our city is having a really strange/awful environmental problem.  A scientist was called in, who might be a "bad scientist" who said the gases our landfill are polluting our air and water are noxious but not toxic.  I think I have that right.  She said it is a terrible stink but that the chemical levels are not high enough that our health should be threatened.  People feel they are being gassed to their end.  People report a sickness that develops only when they are in Bristol TN or Bristol VA, our neighboring city with the dump problem.  

 It has been hard for me to know what to believe, because officials and scientists say it is not harmful, but people are suffering miserably.  For a while I thought it was just a bad stink.  I was aware that mental health effects can seem larger than life, and so I thought it was just a mental health problem.  

Now I am thinking there could be some kind of effort to cover up a major chemical spill.  But of course, nobody knows the source of the benzine, nobody knows if we are all going to get cancer and die.  Nobody knows what really is happening.  Well, maybe some company illegally dumped their chemicals here.  In that case that company knows.

"I take breaths when I need air."

My affirmation for today is difficult when people do not have good air to breathe.  That is a really hard one.

Our house is very well insulated, and when the windows are closed, we cannot smell the dump inside.  Some people are much less fortunate than us.  There are a lot of people who have this stench inside their homes.  It happens several times a week that the stink overpowers.  

"I am lucky."

I am lucky for the good air we seem to have inside our well sealed home.

I am lucky because all my basic needs are met.

I am lucky for the community I am part of.

I am lucky I can communicate and be understood.

I am lucky today.  

Take a deep breath.  

Let it out.

Continue breathing.