The Japanese disaster

How does one even begin to fathom the crisis in Japan? It’s almost beyond comprehension.

Here, in Christchurch, NZ, faced an earthquake and the destruction that it unleashed on us, and perhaps as many as 200 people have died. It was devastating, and left our central business district in ruins, likely closed until Christmas time. It left businesses in the CBD scrambling to try to find office space, houses, anywhere that they could work from. It left people’s homes damaged or destroyed. It cut off power, water, sewerage systems. Liquifaction wreaked havoc across the city. Roads and bridges buckled – I would say there is no street in ChCh that is as level as it once was. Schools have been damaged and some well beyond hope of repair, and we now have other schools doubling up and running morning school for one school and afternoon school for another school. Our historic Arts Centre (the original university of Christchurch) has had all but one building red stickered (too dangerous to enter!), and will cost over $100,000 to repair (it will be repaired because it is an important part of our city). Our iconic Cathedral in the Square is badly damaged. The list goes on…

But we did not face a tsunami. We did not have the horrific power of a massive wave wash our city away. We did not witness cars and shipping containers being swirled around in the water as if they were children’s toys. We did not come back to witness massive piles of splinter wood where houses used to be, ships on top of buildings, cars on top of office blocks, bodies along the shore. And we did not face the potential of a nuclear disaster.

So, for all that we went through, we are so very lucky. And for all that the people of Japan have been through and are still going through…I cannot even comprehend how you must be feeling, but my love, my strength, my support, and my comfort flow out to you.

Whatever we face, there may be others who face worse. Whatever our pain, there may be others in more pain. Whatever our loss, there may be others who have lost more. And so we find the strength to go on, to keep placing one foot in front of the other, to keep taking one breath after another.

What Japan faced is horrific, and yet it is so far away we cannot really understand. What we have faced her in Christchurch … a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, 10 kilometres deep, 40 kilometres from the city centre, on 4^th Sep (4.35 a.m.), and five and a half months later, on the 22^nd Feb (10.51 a.m.), a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake, five kilometres deep and five kilometres from the city centre … this for us is real, raw, and we felt it to our very bones. This we fully comprehend. The destruction, we felt it as it happened, and we knew out city was being shaken to its knees, again, and we knew that this time people were dying. Yet, again, I cannot even comprehend what the people of Japan are facing, as we seem such a small scale disaster compared to Japan.

So what can we all do? We  an be kind to one another. We can send out love, our strength, our comfort, and healing, our light, and our prayers to all of the people of Japan and to the land herself. It may not feel like much…but it is something.

Let’s all do something.