Learning Every Day

It is striking how life changes moment to moment. Things that seemed SO IMPORTANT one minute disappear from one's memory the next. This is very much the case for these past few days. News from Hawaii, where I have family and friends, and Japan -- where a number of my friends/relatives have family has been at the forefront of our minds. We still think and worry for the folks in Iraq and Libya.. for the soldiers and the civilians caught up in the politics of the powerful but the unfolding tragedy in Japan has pretty much overtaken and subsumed our attention.  I hurt, inside me, when I hear the numbers. I grieve for those lost and wish that there were something immediate that I could do. Raising money seems a good, though not very immediate, project -- on the other hand, I realize that those folks are going to NEED the money. To that end, I am including a link to a list of donation sites -- all of them authentic.

As is human, the discussions of what is happening in Japan has led to discussions about what COULD happen here in the Puget Sound Region. The boys and I have agreed that it makes sense to put together an emergency kit. The boys are also planning to learn Morse Code and to study HAM radio operations. We have also been putting together a Glog: Puget Sound Disaster Preparedness . Although some of the information is specific to this reason, there are also links to National Emergency sites as well as links to the history of quakes and tsunamis for those who are interested.

I find, awful though it may sound, that I am desperately in need of the minutiae of life as a distraction from the griefs of the world. Too much information, too many images of all that is happening in Japan and in the Middle East plus a hefty dose of 'Daylight Savings' and Tax time blues, has led to a very blue Mommy. So, with that in mind, this will be my only post on the current events of the larger world. I will return to the joys and terrors of little boys and leave news reporting to the professionals.

Blessings on you all.