Nature – so much peace and calm to be found in her rainforests, by her oceans with sunrises and sunsets full of glory, at the top of her mountains or in planes where we can perch and see the topographies of landscape, and at other times she is a tempest and brings storms, earthquakes, floods, cyclones and we know we must wait until she calms down.
Just as she gives us our food, and our air, she takes and destroys when her fury comes. Yet, she is no she or he, just an entity created by something. She does not have a will (I don’t think so anyway), and yet we do. We have a will to decide how to deal with what nature gives and what nature takes.
Today I went searching blogs that have covered some of the perilous things that have happened with nature in the last two years. You might find it interesting and moving to read some of them. I will be visiting a few of these blogs over the next few days and have bookmarked them in this post to remember those people still healing long after most news crews have gone. Why not visit their blogs and drop them a line to let them that you too are thinking of them.
I asked myself today when will I feel totally free of that pesky Cyclone Yasi, and I think it will be closer when I have completely sorted the junk from two house moves (yes its still not sorted), not see any ruins at all in our main Tully St (it is looking much better than it was!), and when most people are smiling regularly and realise all the good in their daily lives and when I write more about other things. Our community is well on the way to recovery and yet the feelings of joy will be predominant when the physical reminders are repaired more fully and when people take a deep breath when the next big storm comes and calmly prepare without memory running after them and giving them bad dreams. If this is what a natural disaster is like, how much worse human made disasters, wars, hunger, poverty, lack of education, prejudice, fleeing homelands and so on.
Today I was saddened by a boatload of refugees meeting with disaster and by the level of bullying in our schools. It will be awesome to have a world where people don’t have to flee or leave their homelands, and are also welcome everywhere. A place where kids will always feel safe and included at school. I think many of these things will be whole blog topics in themselves one day when I have done some research and found some stories to inspire. I don’t feel down rather I feel determined to find the points of inspiration in our world, people, organisations who are striving to make a difference.
Bloggers, writers, observers, artists can play a role in looking at the ways in which we can fix our world and encouraging each positive moment until it grows. Sometimes it takes a bit of heart to do this, but knowledge and the power of a story can never be underestimated.
Blogs on Disasters and Aftermath
http://belshaw.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/sunday-snippets-nz-earthquakes-tomorrow.html
http://belshaw.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/christchurch-earthquake.html
http://blogs.newzealand.usembassy.gov/ambassador/2012/02/michele-petersen-remembers-february-22nd/
http://blog.fema.gov/2012/02/year-of-reflection-one-year-anniversary.html
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2011/02/24/on-media-trauma-and-the-christchurch-earthquake/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4693057/The-day-the-earth-roared
http://phukettsunami.blogspot.com.au/
http://marinedebrisblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/one-year-later-japan-tsunami-aftermath-and-debris/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/08/japan-tsunami-nurse-blog-comfort-survivors
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/day-by-day-a-personal-story-from-japan/
http://rotowhenua2.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/earthquake-personal-view.html
http://fourpawsandwhiskers.blogspot.com.au/search/label/earthquake
http://nathanaelnz.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/christchurch-earthquake-22-february/
http://alancox.me/2011/02/27/christchurch-earthquake-my-story/
http://markmcguire.net/2011/03/05/social-media-and-the-christchurch-quake/
http://heatherellis-photography.com/stories/personal-quake-of-christchurch/
http://mareeturner.co.nz/christchurch_blog2/
http://jkts-english.blogspot.com.au/
Gumboootspearlz 
Great post. I especially agree with the paragraph about refugees and bullying and such. There is much that needs be done in this old world of ours.
As for Mother Nature and I truly believe her to be female. She can be kind and gentle but she can also be a raging inferno of anger and in so being not caring who or what stands in her path. I sometimes think she gets so angry because we humans exhibit so much hatred toward each other. Is she perhaps punishing us for our sins and our systematic destruction of our planet? It’s a thought.
Vi
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Hi June.
You linked to my post about the Christchurch earthquake, and I followed your link back to here. I appreciate your thoughtful post. I live in Dunedin, which is about 350KM south of Christchurch here in New Zealand. We were not affected by the earthquakes that struck there (a few very strong ones and many hundreds of smaller ones). Although we have heard stories about how many have suffered, I can’t honestly say that I understand how devastating it has been for residents of the that city. I think you have to have lived through it to really know what they are still dealing with. This makes it all the more impressive to see the amazing creativity and positive community actions that have characterized the response of so many people there. A good example is the “Gap Filler” project, a bottom-up effort to turn vacant lots into sites for community regeneration (http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/).
I’ll have a browse through your welcoming site while I’m here. All the best.
Mark McGuire
http://markmcguire.net/
Twitter: @mark_mcguire
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Thanks very much for your feedback Mark, hope you will come back for future visits, and might consider a guest post on my blog. Glad to know the site is welcoming.
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