Now that I have arrived here, my mind, which usually shuttles along like a shooting star, has decided to pause a moment, and the words hang heavy in empty space, perchance to fall upon this page in patterns of coherence. One can hope.

Coherence being not an integral part of my existence at this time. There is so much incomprehensible going on.

Cracks in the earth rocking lives and drowning hope in a part of the world where that commodity has always seemed to be in short supply.

How do you mourn people you never knew, and yet you knew so intimately well simply because they once awoke in the morning -- just like you and me, they once drank a piping hot infusion of caffiene to stir their bodies as the day came alive around them -- just like you and me, they smiled at the people they loved -- just like me and you, they frowned at things that annoyed -- just like me and you, they were kind and indifferent at turns -- just like all the rest of us human beings?

They were within our realm of experience and understanding. Now they are not.

They took with them answers about who they were, what they did, who they loved, what they dreamed of, and how they filled their hours and why. They left only question marks in the sands of the beaches they were snatched from.

How it happened?; we can probably wrap our minds around the scientific explanations if we choose to. What must be done to help?; that is clear and present before our eyes -- provision of food, medicines, equipment, clothes, shelter, and money ... and love, compassion, patience and understanding. Human gifts from human hearts for human souls still within our circle of influence and concern.

We could ask why, but that is one question nobody haa ever answered sastifactorily (or truthfully?) within the annals of human times.

Were they punished for some awful sin perpetrated so long ago by some disatant ancestor that only a deity could remember? Were they punished because they themselves behaved so badly that even the most compassionate gods could never have forgiven them? Did they bring this abbreviation of life upon themselves by not being careful or wise enough not to live in or visit places that were not safe to be? Or were they players in a game of fate set in motion eons ago, and then forgotten as a child forgets a a broken toy? Or were they simply there when the earthquake and tsunamis came - that and nothing more?

There truly is no answer to "Why?" in matters of life and death. And any presumption to answer "Why?" will ring false, empty and meaningless.

It saddens me deeply that there are those, whom one might expect to guide and comfort, who are bringing up the old myths and wrathful entities of powerful dimension to whom we must aplogize or lose our lives and souls. Better they remain silent, than to speak of those they never knew in such sweeping and judgmental connotations.

Better that I quietly ponder in gentle remembrance that they were people like the loved ones they left behind, and like me, who mourn their passing simply because they were once with us and now they are not. Better that I try to understand that every moment a human being lives, breathes, moves and acts upon this earth, there is the potential for good, for love, for gentleness, for doing the best possible and being the best possible.

There is no such thing as an unimportant life.

There was a poem once, which I read because I had to in a mandatory undergraduate freshman lit course. It was written by William Woodsworth and goes as follows:

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
--Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!"

There are so many violets in this world, so many stones to hide behind. So many reasons to overlook and be overlooked. So many questions unanswered. So many hearts untouched.

And so little time to know and be known.