Day Seventeen: Disaster Relief Donation

It's been a pensive day.  Like many people, I awoke to the news of the disaster in Japan and my heart broke for the innumerable people who have lost so much.  I actually visited Japan as a college student back in 1995, shortly after the devastating earthquake that hit Kobe.  (There's a reason some people refer to the "novelty gene" as the "travel gene!")  During my travels, I had the privilege of staying at the home of my mother's childhood exchange student and was treated with incredible warmth and hospitality.  At the time, you could still see the  overwhelming devastation from the earthquake that had hit several months before.  I can only imagine what the country looks like today.  I pray that this family and their loved ones are safe.

So for today's novel experience I decided to donate to the tsunami disaster relief fund set up by the Red Cross.  While these are financially stressful times for my family, I wanted to be able to provide some tiny amount of relief to somebody who is suffering from the effects of this disaster.  There are several ways that you can make a donation:  you can visit the  Red Cross website or you can text "Redcross" to 90999 and have $10.00 billed to your cell phone account.  I would urge anyone reading this to consider donating whatever they can to this important cause. 

I am also recommitting myself to my goal of completing the coursework to become a mental health disaster relief volunteer.  As a trained trauma therapist, I took the first course necessary to volunteer a few months ago.  (As an aside, I do not recommend watching disaster training videos while pregnant and hormonal!)  At its completion, I intended to get in touch with my local Red Cross chapter to find out about the course work I would need to complete this certification and be added to their volunteer roster.  However, pregnancy and the birth of my child understandably had put this onto the back burner.  While it will be a while before I can spend the time in trainings, I at least want to make that initial phone call.

While it's easy to get bogged down with the stressors in our lives, it's events like the disaster in Japan that put everything back into perspective. Life can be challenging because of the things that we are luckiest to have and would miss the most if they were gone. Tonight, while I watched my little one splash and coo in her tub, I thought about all of the people in the world who would give anything to be able to have this simple experience and I was overwhelmed with both gratitude and grief.  Tonight I'm appreciating the things that I might take for granted and am sending out prayers to the innumerable people in the world who have lost so much.  Give your loved ones an extra hug and stay safe.