WHOA . . .

It's been a year, exactly, since The Tsunami in southeast Asia. Commemorative services and moments of silence abound ... I remember this time last year, the heaviness on my heart and the hearts of those around me, especially at church ... all of us monitoring the news headlines, waiting, dreading the death toll rising ... the special offering collection at NHF ... it's been a year, now. Incredible.

I wonder how things are getting along over there. Recovery is slow, I'm sure. So much can happen in a year ... and so little. It's mind-boggling sometimes.

A larger question is this: how did a year go by already? Everything seems like it just happened yesterday ... or at least just a couple of months ago. Weird.

It's still too soon to meditate on the year past -- I have five more days to do that. Actually, I wasn't really thinking about it, for I have much to look forward to in the new year and so I wasn't really considering the ending of this year. But I know I have to, and I will ... I'm just sort of afraid to, because there has been so much that mere words, a mere blog, even writing in my personal journal, just won't suffice ...

Anyhow, as I realize that it's been a year since The Tsunami, I realize something else: the obligation, the responsibility, the joy of helping people -- even those who are not suffering massively -- never ends. There is comfort in that, because that means that we are all, always, forever connected, and thus, we are never alone and never unloved and never left to our own devices. What an amazing thing, indeed.