Hope

This last week my mind has been consumed with what is happening in Japan. I have prayed for people I don’t even know, and my heart goes out to them. Mostly, I just think of normal mom’s like me who took their kids to school or day care, said good-bye and then went to work without a thought of impending disaster. You know there are families that are separated one from each other, and no way of finding or reach them. The thought of displaced children, homeless families, all of life’s possession both tangible and irreplaceable haunt me.

Sitting so far away on the side lines there is a sense of helplessness in seeing so much vulnerability shaken and swept away. For how can we truly separate ourselves from another when the unthinkable is happening?

In witnessing the horror on my television that only Stephen King could conjure up in his imagination I almost feel guilty that right now my life is ok. I have the flu, and big deal..they make over the counter medication for such discomforts, right up to extra soft Kleenex tissue to heating pads and Vicks vapor rub. All of which I have purchased by getting into my car and driving down cleared roads to stocked grocery stores, and back to the comforts of my own bed.

We say it so casually that when it is your time to go, it is your time to go. And maybe it is not so much the going as it is the not knowing. I cannot imagine looking for my lost love ones on lists consisting of names or descriptions of individuals.

Gavin told me last week that he wished no one had to die, and I agreed with him. I don’t wish to die, nor do I wish to say good bye to anyone I know. But what if life were perfect? Then I guess we really could ask ourselves “what is the point?” If we never faced sadness would we ever know true happiness when it appeared before us? If we were never challenged how would we learn our true capacity? If everything was handed to us, would we be bored, would we reach out to help others? I guess this is where faith steps in and gives us hope to hang on, reminding us that just as the good times pass, so do the bad times.


In honor of hope here are a few pics...

Spring is in bloom my spiderwart plant already green and growing...
I noticed tonight the Magnolia tree is blooming as well as my Stellas, and Iris. Finally after a long winter!


And who can't be hopeful when looking at their own child?
Even if you don't have children, love what you do have and count your blessings!