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A corner of my thoughts has been with those in northern Japan who are enduring the great trauma (see video footage of water here) caused by the Tsunami created by the massive earthquake last Friday, March 11, 2011.  Japan lies on the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’:  “About 90% of the world’s earthquakes and 80% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.”

I was 12 in 1964 when the great earthquake struck Alaska, and how well I remember that experience.  Yet to me, a survivor of severe and nearly continual child abuse, the aftermath of that earthquake actually felt good to me.  My mother, like most adults in Alaska at the time, was completely focused on that disaster, which meant she completely ignored me.  Being ignored felt like heaven to me.

Yet as overwhelming an experience as a major earthquake and tsunami can be, that kind of trauma – not one caused by human beings – is actually easier to bear and heal from for people than is a major trauma of the other kind – one that IS caused by humans.

When I think of severe infant-child abuse I always think about it within the realm of great traumas, knowing that all the parameters of suffering, distress, terror, pain and confusion are actually greatly increased for young infants and children when faced with trauma caused by the very people who are supposed to love and care for them.

Even though today was a gorgeous day, and I spent all of it outside working toward being able to plant my garden, I could not entirely block out my awareness that there are things happening to others of all ages around this nation and this globe that are causing them to suffer.  I am very glad that I believe in the spiritual power of prayer to help all of us, even though most of what happens in this lifetime remains a Great Mystery to me.

As I work hard and humbly with my hands in the dirt I know there is a God that cares about everyone and about everything.  I ask that God to help all of us this whole world over.

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Why is there no looting in Japan?

Discipline in the face of disaster: no looting in Japan

“Three days after a magnitude-9 killer quake devastated Japan, triggering Pacific-wide tsunamis and a likely nuclear plant meltdown and then consigning millions of Japanese to darkness, thirst and hunger in the wintry cold, I still have yet to read reports of widespread looting,” wrote Frederico D. Pascual Jr. of The Philippine Star. “This Filipino watching 3,200 kilometers from Ground Zero finds this disciplined behavior of a huge population in distress awe-inspiring. Let us pray that they stay that way — and that we learn from them.“

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