HOPE FOR JAPAN

5:05 PM Posted by MS.NOVA

"it was all good just a week ago..."

My brain has still not fully processed the events of the past few days. Seeing our fellow human beings go through unspeakable, unnatural suffering is too much to digest. I've had trouble putting the words down to even write about last week's nightmare, which is strange considering there is so much to say.

It's said that when you live to be a certain age, you start to fully experience life's joys and sorrows. Personally, I can recall the real-time unfolding of recent history's BIG moments; bright green missles flying over Kuwait in the Gulf War, the slow motion tumble of two towers on a sunny morning in September, an agonizing five day wait for rescue after Hurricane Katrina, the unspeakable shock of seeing a family washed away in the "Boxing Day Tsunami", uprisings in Iran and Egypt, a flattened Haiti, a resilient Chile, and now the land of the rising sun has been called on to show their strength and grace once more.

Where is there great loss, there is great good. In these seemingly dark days we need to make a concerted effort to realize GOOD does happen every day. If we see that, we risk become apathetic. Even in a mind numbing disaster like we have in Japan, there are tales of heroism, community, togetherness and loved ones reuniting. Events of this scale command a new respect for our Mother Nature and stress the importance of that common thread that weaves through each of our 6.5 billion relatives. How many more times does our world literally need to be rocked before we grab that thread and hang on like our lives depend on it? As we trudge on and upwards into the 21st century, take stock of the big events that moved you and extract the message from that mess as best you can. Good things happen everyday. Remind yourself, remind another, then grab that thread and hang on.