One Week.

It's been one week since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
It's been one week since thousands of people's lives have changed forever.
It's been one week since devastation beyond our wildest dreams.
Devastation that we can't even imagine.
Over the past week, there have been so many images... So many surreal images, and these are the ones that have stuck with me the most:



Vehicles sitting on top of 2 and 3 story buildings... A diesel bus, on top of a building... Up there like they're some sort of Hot wheels car. Only they're so not Hot wheels cars. I can't imagine how terrifying this experience must have been for the people of this city.

This disaster is now one week old. It's no longer 'breaking news' on local TV stations. Every night there is less and less information. We simply can not forget that the people of Japan not only have to deal with the aftermath of this natural disaster, but they are getting closer every moment to a nuclear meltdown. Thousands and thousands [and by that I mean more like hundreds of thousands] of homes are without electricity and water. It's still winter there. It's cold. These people are displaced and have no where to turn.

At this moment, there are 6,406 confirmed dead and about 10, 259 still not accounted for.

My prayers and thoughts are with the people of Japan constantly. It's hard to help, from the other side of the world. All we can do is help financially [and, if I'm being completely honest, even if I could go there to help, in-person, I don't think I'm brave enough to do it. Perhaps I would be braver, if there wasn't the risk of being exposed to radiation]

This weekend, we're going to take our bottles back to the bottle depot and donate the money to the Red Cross. Mason really wanted to do something to help the people of Japan. [Of course during the past week at school, he's learned a lot more about this disaster than either myself or Barry would have shared with him, including images and pictures] I guess that's a part of him getting older... We want to keep him sheltered, but he's going to find out that bad things happen.

Please keep the people of Japan in the forefront of your mind.