You've heard about the earthquake in Haiti. I've glimpsed headlines as I went to check my e-mail today: unthinkable, ever-growing numbers of those dead, snippets of individuals' experiences in the aftermath. There was a missionary whose wife was trapped in the wreckage of their office building for ten hours. There are huge crowds of people constructing sheet tents in the roads and open parking lots for shelter. There are parents holding the tiny lifeless bodies of their babies.
What do you say... what do you do...
My house is a mansion. My children are princes in it. We have never missed a meal. We have yet to experience calamity. One Haitian woman said to a journalist, "We are just trying to survive." And I hate myself for using this same line while describing a toddler meltdown in the middle of Target, a delayed road trip to the beach, a month without air conditioning.
So I ask Him,
"What should I say? What should I do?"
Because nothing feels like enough.
7 comments:
I know what you mean. It's so terrible--and so terribly sudden, you know, the way disaster can strike? I'm left feeling simultaneously more grateful for, and less easy about, my life.
As far as helping the survivors, I think pray and donate money and pray and pray.
I agree completely. I have felt the same way, watching CNN as I was running on the treadmill, not running for my life.
My husband and I gave a donation to Catholic Relief Services. I think as privileged people in the world we live in, money might be just about the best physical thing we can do for those people.
And of course, prayer. Always prayer!
Oh my goodness!! I think we had the same thought this morning, I posted something about it too!
I agree, prayer may be just the thing.
Thanks for the thought, ladies! I think prayer is definitely a good response (the best!), and the hubby and I are prayerfully thinking about how we can use our resources to help.
I know what you mean... every once in a while we just look around and realize how insanely well we live compared to the rest of the world. And yet I often feel poor and put-upon and dissatisfied. How does that work??
I know exactly what you mean. And yet it is so easy to feel sorry for yourself. You have everything, and you don't see it.
I know. It's just so devastating. I want to write something about how I'm feeling when I hear one more story that breaks my heart...but I don't know what to say. Forgive me for being safe? Forgive me for worrying about what to make for dinner? Forgive me for being glad I'm not there and nobody I know was? It's hard. You wrote beautifully about your (and all of our) feelings.
Post a Comment