More than broken pots

It's hard to know what to say or always what to do when major world catastrophes happen around the globe.  For myself, I only listen to the news on the radio or catch a bit of what's happening via the internet and often I'm a little delayed in my knowledge of what is happening.  There is so much going on right now- earthquakes and tsunami's, political up-rising and civil wars are certainly what come to mind off the top of my head.  I know that my life is not immune to such massive, life-altering changes, and yet, I find it hard to know how to reach out in each of these cases.  The 'power of one' seems like such a tall task, like me with these 2 hands of mine can't possibly do enough to help such huge problems and devastation.  I know that together we all can, and that each person doing their part to reach out can help even one other person. (The Canadian Red Cross is a good place to start.)

A few months ago I sold some mugs to a wonderful and lovely mom of 2 from Japan.  She actually bought 2 mugs, and then ordered 4 more and it was a delight to send them her way with such appreciation coming from her.  Yesterday I email her through Etsy to see whether she and her family were safe- and she replied right away to say- yes! They were safe and so were the mugs, much to her relief.  I know this isn't the case for many families in Japan or in New Zealand for that matter.  Not only is the death toll rising but also the absolute destruction showing that people have lost it  all. That many of their precious belongings, that their family treasures were destroyed.  It really makes one think about what matters most and what we hold dear to our hearts.