Waking Up from This Nightmare

A lovely young mom and wonderful artist — someone I count as a friend — wrote to "check in" on me and my "green (and tender) heart — in light of all this devastating news coming from Japan."

I know that this woman has a tender, green heart herself. "Between the human loss and the environmental impact (and nuclear issues), well, it makes me overwhelmed. How about you?" She continued: "These are scary times. And how scared should we be? I hate being a parent in times like these. Are people overreacting? What is your opinion on such matters? Because I'm silently freaking out.... I want someone to tell me, nahhhh there's nothing to worry about, everything will be fine. But I know that's a pipe dream."

I realized then, as I explained to another friend, that I had been hovering between the panic of not understanding (the nuclear situation in Japan, the connection between global warming and natural disasters) and "oh, for heaven's sake, relax" — and didn't have a clue which way to go.

Ignorance has not been blissful over the last few days. So I started reading. Knowing is no better, however. But my nightmare is not the usual one. Mine is that the world over, it seems, people are petrified of nuclear fallout that might never, ever impact them ... and totally oblivious to the global warming fallout that is impacting their whole biosphere. The vitriol and invective now being hurled at anyone who suggests the global climate change emergency is a bigger threat than the Fukushima nuclear accident is nightmarish, too.

My friend wrote again:

"Tonight my kids were afraid to go to sleep because they didn't want to have bad dreams. I burned a sage smudge wand in their room to chase the bad dreams away. They went to sleep. And I think to myself after checking the news all evening, that I am in a bad dream and I can't wake up. So I've been sitting in the kids' room watching them sleep for the last hour or so. To remind myself of the light in all of this darkness."

Yes, our beloved children ... all the children, of all species ... are the light in all of this darkness. Let's hope we can stop all the nightmares before they wake up.

p.s. My heart goes out to all those impacted by the earthquake(s), the tsunami(s) and the nuclear accidents in Japan. Please visit Prayers for the Earth to share what others are feeling (scroll down to the bottom of the page).