The Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

As I look outside and admire the blue sky and spring sunshine, I count my blessings that I have a home and all my family are safe.

I have to blog today about the recent earthquake in Japan because I know that it's on our minds right now as we watch the images of total devastation on tv and learn about 10,000+ people found dead. As I chatted to my daughter this morning it was very difficult for us to take in the vast death toll as it’s as huge as our home town!

This catastrophe could happen to anyone and I feel a twinge of guilt that we go about our daily lives in the same way today as we did on Friday, worrying about such small things.  This gets everything into perspective. Nothing has changed for many of us but everything has changed for them. Are we just lucky or is our turn coming soon?

There have been many earthquakes recently including Chile this weekend and there will be more. Is this the end of the world and will it be taken apart a little piece at a time? Attention has now turned from the earthquake and tsunami to the threat of a nuclear meltdown in Japan's nuclear power plants. Given the recent revival in the use of this as a power source, we are being asked to pause and consider the future results of these choices and make different decisions.

Can we do anything to prevent this and why are some people spared while others become victims of disaster? In reality, no one is spared because whether it is our homes that are destroyed or we are watching it on TV, we are all part of what happens to others as we’re part of the human family. It is heart-wrenching to see the victims and their families as much as if they were our own family because as humans, they are.  We can pray for them and while it feels like so little it’s really a lot.

Compassion vortexes are openings for us to reconnect and remember ourselves as a human family, to remind us that we are all one, from a single Source and all part of each other. When this kind of event happens, we are further reminded to love one another, to have compassion, to be mindful that life is precious, our earthly home is a living being that we must love, honour and protect, that we are most powerful when our hearts beat as one than we can ever be when we use our lives in competition with each other.