Prayers for Japan

This afternoon, as I sat there watching and reading the news about the earthquake in Japan, I cannot help but feel a sense of sadness and a certain emptiness inside.  The quake measured 8.9 on the richter scale.  This is no little affair even for Japan which is used to having earthquakes.   I pray that there are no devastating aftershocks and that the tsunamis don’t affect more people than it has already.  I know it’s partly wishful thinking since warnings have been issued from Russia to the US, and the Philippines, but one does have to hope for the best.  We must all hope for the best.

This was one catastrophic movement of the teutonic plates and somehow this past year or so, more of these catastrophic events have been occurring.  I’m not sure if its just me but with the one in Haiti, New Zealand , Indonesia and South American countries,  earthquakes seem to be occuring every few months.  Thailand isn’t located in the ring of fire, but the Indian Ocean Quake in 2004 which hit Thailand and killed thousands of people is still firmly in my mind.   The powerful force of the Tsunami waves destroyed everything in its path.  All that remained were scenes of wreckage.  Scenes of destruction as if we were in some kind of horror movie turned reality.

Today, many around me kept saying how it reminded them of the movie 2012.  I have yet to watch it, but I gather it depicts the end of the world.  Some say it is the year we on Earth shall no longer be.  Perhaps this is it for us.  Perhaps not.

Whatever the destruction, the carnage that we see, we must not lose hope.  We must help Japan rebuild and revive.  They survived the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, and so they’ll survive this one in Sendai.  Whatever happens, one must move on and make the best of life. 

Remember that anything could happen anywhere, anytime and to anyone.  I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Japan last year and it shatters me to imagine it in such a state, but then, this is a good reminder to us that nothing in life is “permanent.”  Live and do the best you can do now before its too late.