Wonders and Perils of the Natural World

loveheartleaf3 — Nature Takes, Nature Gives – By June Perkins

Nature – so much peace and calm to be found in her rainforests, by her oceans with sunrises and sunsets full of glory, at the top of her mountains or in planes where we can perch and see the topographies of landscape, and at other times she is a tempest and brings storms, earthquakes, floods, cyclones and we know we must wait until she calms down.

Just as she gives us our food, and our air, she takes and destroys when her fury comes. Yet, she is no she or he, just an entity created by something. She does not have a will (I don’t think so anyway), and yet we do. We have a will to decide how to deal with what nature gives and what nature takes.

Today I went searching blogs that have covered some of the perilous things that have happened with nature in the last two years. You might find it interesting and moving to read some of them. I will be visiting a few of these blogs over the next few days and have bookmarked them in this post to remember those people still healing long after most news crews have gone. Why not visit their blogs and drop them a line to let them that you too are thinking of them.

I asked myself today when will I feel totally free of that pesky Cyclone Yasi, and I think it will be closer when I have completely sorted the junk from two house moves (yes its still not sorted), not see any ruins at all in our main Tully St (it is looking much better than it was!), and when most people are smiling regularly and realise all the good in their daily lives and when I write more about other things. Our community is well on the way to recovery and yet the feelings of joy will be predominant when the physical reminders are repaired more fully and when people take a deep breath when the next big storm comes and calmly prepare without memory running after them and giving them bad dreams. If this is what a natural disaster is like, how much worse human made disasters, wars, hunger, poverty, lack of education, prejudice, fleeing homelands and so on.

Today I was saddened by a boatload of refugees meeting with disaster and by the level of bullying in our schools. It will be awesome to have a world where people don’t have to flee or leave their homelands, and are also welcome everywhere. A place where kids will always feel safe and included at school. I think many of these things will be whole blog topics in themselves one day when I have done some research and found some stories to inspire. I don’t feel down rather I feel determined to find the points of inspiration in our world, people, organisations who are striving to make a difference.

Bloggers, writers, observers, artists can play a role in looking at the ways in which we can fix our world and encouraging each positive moment until it grows. Sometimes it takes a bit of heart to do this, but knowledge and the power of a story can never be underestimated.

Blogs on Disasters and Aftermath

http://belshaw.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/sunday-snippets-nz-earthquakes-tomorrow.html

http://belshaw.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/christchurch-earthquake.html

http://blogs.newzealand.usembassy.gov/ambassador/2012/02/michele-petersen-remembers-february-22nd/

http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/emergencies/2011/08/new-zealand-earthquake-worldwide-support-helps-families-recover/

http://blog.fema.gov/2012/02/year-of-reflection-one-year-anniversary.html

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2011/02/24/on-media-trauma-and-the-christchurch-earthquake/

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4693057/The-day-the-earth-roared

http://phukettsunami.blogspot.com.au/

http://marinedebrisblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/one-year-later-japan-tsunami-aftermath-and-debris/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/08/japan-tsunami-nurse-blog-comfort-survivors

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/day-by-day-a-personal-story-from-japan/