Making Waves

Today's earthquake in Japan, and in particular the aerial footage of the tsunami rushing ashore, drew me to my sit-spot despite the cold, grey day. I needed to contemplate, not just think, not just feel, both at once, and neither.

I remember when I first read about tectonic plates as a teenager, how mysterious and important they seemed. I walked the beach trying to imagine the ground shifting beneath me. Really, I could not. I could try, but my mind could not go there.

Watching the waves I felt how this body of water is connected to all the oceans of the world. It is in this same water that bodies break, buildings drown, cars float. Now, as I watch these waves, type these words our world is awash, shocked, fearful, tearful.

We say our hearts go out, we say our thoughts are there in Christchurch, in Tokyo. New Zealand blippers write of their experiences in ways that touch the heart more than any news report, more than any charitable donation. What is this doing to us? What does the Twitter feed, the Facebook frenzy do to us when real people tell us what it's like for them to be in Cairo or Benghazzi? And what, really, do we think is happening on our planet?

Until quite recently I was deeply sceptical about all this 2012 'end of time' stuff. I preferred to simply observe the different ways this is presented - all doom and gloom, the end of life as we know it, or the coming of a new age. It was the latter that raised the hackles of my scepticism, I'm allergic to almost everything 'New Age.'

But I do wonder. I know that each disaster, each crisis makes me a little kinder - to myself and to the people around me. I know that I cry for people who I'll never meet and that each tear opens my heart a little more. I know that I am grateful when people share their stories, their sorrows, joys and confusions. And I have come to feel that perhaps there is a meaningful change afoot on our planet, that everything we do, think and feel IS part of that and that Joy's Compass IS our guide.