feeling helpless.....not hopeless

so much has happened this past week.

so much sadness and devastation.

so much confusion.

it's hard to know who to listen to....who to believe.

which news to follow.

and, no.
it's not even a possibility that i would come "home" because of this.

it's hard for many to understand, but really....i am home.

plus....we are so far away from tokyo....it would be like...

someone from my hometown... in south-eastern colorado....

hearing of a tornado watch in wyoming....

and going to the basement for protection.

really.

we're that far away.

but that doesn't make us any more detached.

we feel helpless...and a bit guilty that we are so safe and not suffering.

weird, huh?

one of my students came to class the other night and told us of her daughter and her family's plight..
they are in one of the worst hit places.

though they were spared by the tsunami, the earthquake has caused so much trouble for them.

no water.

food is running out.

no gas to cook.

they have rice, but...with no water, they can't cook it.

the husband is so nervous, he's having stomach trouble.

the girls can't sleep.

feeling helpless.

 

 

and yet...the reports of how people are acting...how they are still so kind...and respectful of

everyone else.  no looting. no fighting.

and no...that's not a case of "oh, they just aren't showing us pictures of that".

really.  that doesn't happen here.

a grandma and her grandson were found after over a week.
a mother was found in a shelter.
a baby was born.
my friend's daughter and her family are alive.

***********
*****

  

in a word:      life

**************

"moon over the japanese garden"

by my friend, karen

in another word:      hope

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;

the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

                                             ~~~Kahlil Gibran