With all that has been happening in the past week I started to really count my blessings closer to home. Watching the wave of water destroy towns in Japan on the news was absolutely heart-wrenching. There is nothing that stirs human emotion more than watching helplessly as people flee for their lives and knowing there is little to nothing you can do.
As if by deja-vu, Tyler and I stayed glued to the tv all night, listening to the eerie scream of the tsunami sirens blaring in the distance. The tangible energy that you feel when your entire world (or at least as you know it) waits on baited breath to see if we will be swept away by a wave, is something that I can't describe. Everyone is quiet, everyone is nervous, the geckos stop chirping, the wing blows a little quieter, everything is in a suspended pause of anxiety. All eyes were turned toward the east, all ears were focused on Hawaii. Waiting to hear if the waves would devastate our shores.
We, on Oahu, dodged another bullet. Maui and Big Island didn't get as lucky, but compared to what happened to Japan we were incredibly blessed. Tyler and I got called into work the following morning, and all I could think of was the mass amount of displaced people that were still here in Honolulu and couldn't get home to Japan. My coworker was supposed to leave tomorrow for Tokyo to see her family, but canceled her trip. She cries whenever she talks about the quake and gets teary when she sees signs and shirts that say "Pray for Japan". A trainer at my job, Hiro, his sister was missing from her home in the tsunami hit area, but was found in critical condition in a hospital. The "Aloha for Japan" fund here is incredible, most have Japanese ancestory and almost everyone is in contact with Japanese people everyday. The aloha spilling out to help our Japanese friends and neighbors is beautiful.
So in a time like this, I can't complain about my job. I do, but it is definitely humbling to realize I am way better off than some. I have friends and family that are safe and healthy in California and all over the world. I wake up to a beautiful sunrise and fall asleep to a beautiful sunset every night. I come home to the most amazing man in the world, we get to live in a beautiful island paradise. I have enough money to buy food, I have a car to get around and I am blessed with good health. It's still hard to see the images and photographs coming out of the devastated area, knowing that you are so blessed over here in Hawaii and can't really do much...
So when you brag and boast, whine or complain...that's ok. We have a right to be proud of our accomplishments, we can feel disappointment when we strive to achieve our best and fall short. It is what makes us human to experience these kinds of emotions and pushes us to continue to become the best people we can be. But once our moments of selfish feelings are over, we need to take a minute to look at others in the world and their situations. Those that are better off can do what we can to help others. And we need take a step back and look at our lives and realize that we are very lucky, and we should be in awe of the lives we have been granted.
Namaste.
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