Hidden in the depths of the earth two great forces banging and crashing up against one another. One slipped a bit. The earth shuddered. The pressure was released. The Kathmandu Valley heaved and rumbled. It was all quite simple. All quite natural.
I cannot possibly bring myself to moan about anything in my life this day, when half a world away in Nepal there is so much destruction and death. Lives have been lost, lives have been overturned, lives have been changed forever on a scale I struggle to comprehend. I spent much of the morning trolling through umpteen books from my professional church days, searching for something appropriate to offer, some compassionate turn of phrase that would be of comfort. I found only trite, sometimes offensive, empty words.
But a troll through some of the news feeds offered me something of note:
If I saw no one stopping to help, not one person risking their own life to save someone else; if I saw no communities rushing to provide aid; if I saw not a dollar offered from the hands of the rich; if I saw not a single relief agency spring into action, saw no one offer the suffering human kindness and compassion; if I saw no First World nation reaching out to offer help, aid, and expertise, then I would have something to moan about, something worthy of lament on this Monday.
But that's not what I saw this morning. I saw nations, I see my Canada, responding with expertise and money. I saw relief organisations, some on the ground in Nepal already, others mobilising aid. I saw people at their best giving to others who are not at their best.
Help + Hope.
It's a simple thing, really.
©2015 April Hoeller
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