I can hold my breath for thirty-five seconds.
You probably can too. It’s not hard.
In thirty-five seconds I can reheat my coffee in the microwave.
I can hug someone and produce a credible amount of oxytocin, that “feeling loved” hormone.
I can appreciate the smell of a star-gazer lily,
Laugh at the absurdity of losing something I just had in my hand,
Kiss my husband all over his face
in just thirty-five seconds.
On January 12, 2010 Haiti had a thirty-five-second event.
In thirty-five seconds
250,000 people died.
Survivors fear 150,000 are still buried in the rubble.
In thirty-five seconds 1.3 million people were left homeless,
schools collapsed,
hospitals crushed those they were trying to heal:
Mothers with newborns,
Fathers, sons, daughters, friends, aunts and uncles —
Real people with loves and passions and hopes.
Some people, safe in their homes,
have postulated that all these people
brought this suffering upon themselves.
The Law of Attraction is at work you know, and,
Just as with the tsunami of 2004
All those people chose to be drowned,
Crushed,
Left childless,
Or widowed.
One teacher who survived the quake
Heard the cries of a student and went into the rubble to save him.
The building collapsed killing him,
But when they dug out his body
Rescuers found the child alive, cradled in his arms.
Or,
As some people who claim to speak for God claim,
These people in Haiti,
all those infants, toddlers, school kids,
They are all practicing the wrong religion
And that’s why they were punished.
Just as New Orleans was buried under water
for the sins of those wicked black people.
35 seconds.
Start counting now.
How long is thirty-five seconds of terror and destruction?
Enough time to end a life you’ve known and begin another life that terrifies you.
Enough time to lose everyone you love
And every familiar place,
Every store,
Every cafe,
And the home you have built.
Might you be stunned if you had lost everything in thirty-five seconds?
Might some people look at your stunned face and call it apathy?
Might you have difficulty mustering the energy, hope, and resilience
it takes to rebuild a country,
A country whose government was broken to begin with?
Broken by poverty, corruption, and violence?
Greed,
Would you like to take some action from your home,
Your safe, warm home?
Every little bit counts.
Go to this website for the Children of Haiti Project
and give what you can. Children of Haiti Project: www.childrenofhaitiproject.org/
I know these people.
They are good, honest people of courage and heart.
Give them a little something in the name of someone on your Christmas list,
Someone who has too much stuff anyway,
Which is everyone I know,
Including, of course,
Myself.
Bless you and bless the invincible strength of the human spirit.