Japanese Emergency

I'm still stunned by what's going on in Japan, I cannot stop myself from reading the news or looking at photos of the devastation. Nature is so frightening. The scariest part is watching how a tsunami can basically wipe out an entire village. I have always had a healthy fear of the ocean, and watching the rushing water effortlessly wash away homes, buildings, cars, ships...only made my fear more fearsome. There are so many elements about the crisis in Japan that are surreal to me.

* first, the power of a tsunami to wipe away entire villages. I think it's even more surreal because this is Japan, the most earthquake-prepared and one of the most advanced nations in the world. If ever there was a country prepared for a major earthquake, it's Japan, and yet it is still suffering from devastation, which is frightening - if a similar earthquake happens anywhere else in the world, it will basically be...disastrous on an apocalyptic level.

* second, it's surreal to me how many things are going wrong in Japan right now. Earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis, erupting volcano. OMG, it's crazy to me that everyone in Japan isn't just trying to get the hell out of dodge as soon as possible.

* third, it's amazing to me how civilized the Japanese are, and how gracefully they are handling the situation. No looting, no robberies, no violence. Any other nation in the world and you would have mass chaos. One thing I really have to respect about the Japanese - they are civilized, even in the most dire of circumstances.

* fourth, did I mention that it's crazy to me how many things are going wrong in Japan? Overnight, it's going from the most advanced nation in the world to something of a second-world country with rolling blackouts, food shortages, thousands of people homeless....

*fifth, the images of the disaster - they are straight out of an apocalyptic film about the end of the world, but it's all real.

Maybe it's because I lived in Japan and have friends there, but this earthquake-tsunami-nuclear crisis is really taking an emotional toll on me. Watching videos and looking at photos makes my heart break - I literally feel a big knot in my heart, my mind feels blank, I feel like it's not real and yet feel incredibly sad and devastated at the same time.

I pray for miraculous survival stories, ones that will bring us hope and remind us of the beauty of life among all of this disaster.