Today, watching and reading the relentless outpouring of news on the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster I feel that our collective mother heart must surely look beyond our own immediate sufferings and reach out in compassion to families devastated by a horror of such magnitude.
In considering my personal, historical suffering as a mother and fully acknowledging my very real experiences of separation, estrangement and periods of such darkness I feared for my survival, I can know for sure that by comparison to the mothers of Japan, my suffering is small. My children are all alive, they are well and for the most part, our connection with one another is deep, loving and meaningful.
I am not staggering through a decimated landscape, searching through piles of rubble for the bloated body parts of my drowned and missing children. I'm sitting here on my comfortable sofa, looking out onto a calm and peaceful garden. By comparison I lack nothing.
Gratitude for my lot seems unspeakable - an insult almost - something to be quietly whispered in awe and reverence for the seemingly chaotic forces that shape our times. Yet, only in expressing that gratitude am I able to see the reality of what I have, rather than what I lack.
You can donate to the Japanese disaster fund here: The Red Cross
or here: Save The Children
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