Prayers to Japan and others

[KatyaR]

Every commercial, every television show, every movie, every magazine tells us how we alone matter, and how important greed is.

Which is a very good reason to take all of the above with large amounts of salt. They can blind us to normal grace and to good people, and drown us in the dark, ugly exceptions. (Of course, that makes any media that *don't* wallow in ugliness something special!)

Yah, it's wonderful to hear of the men and women of Japan who carry on in frightening times. Thank you for letting us know that you are well. I know things are going to be difficult for some time yet.

[embyquinn]

BTW, a middle (magnitude 6) earthquake came again in last night (Mar. 17).
Half of my dolls were fallen down from shelf and desk, but others are standing with their own feet.
I pride them.

And we, yah, are very, very proud of you for standing on your own two feet through all this.

[Swan]

Yes! We pride Yah!

Thank you, Yah, for putting things in proper perspective. While I do not live in Japan, I used to live in California and have gone through four large quakes in that state, the worst being the Loma Prieta Quake in San Francisco. Your pictures bring back memories to me of people helping each other and stepping in when needed.

The Japanese people are all in my prayers, and when the Red Cross mounts a telethon for the aid effort, just as with Katrina and the Haitian quake and tsunami, I will be there, in 12 hour shifts, handling the phone boards. I am too old, now to crawl through rubble helping recover bodies, orsearch for survivors, and I would not be very good at it... so this is the least I can do... to help on the telephones for the Red Cross. We have been getting WoNDERFUL donations from kind hearted people. One elderly lady called... she could only afford to give one dollar and she wept in shame at the meagerness of her donation... I matched it, of course, and then some. Sadly I am not allowed to tell callers that. The bird and the cherry blossoms break my heart and MEND it at the same time!

DomoArrigato, Yah, and I will keep on praying.

Swan

[PinkCow]

I mentioned on page 3 that I hadn't heard from my Japanese host family yet... now I am so thankful, because I have an email from them. They're all safe and well, and are considering coming to stay in America for a time in light of recent events. Whatever they choose to do, I'm rejoicing having contact with them now. Even small good news is still good news.