earthshaking....

The world has actually changed since the Japan quake. Apparently their coastline is different by 8 feet- not sure in which direction?- and the length of the day was shortened! These concepts boggle my mind. I know they say it is milliseconds but something so concrete as the length of our day changing in the fraction of an eye is deeply unnerving. I felt an earthquake once in Alaska and I remember being very disoriented by the shaking of the ground. It is not supposed to move!   I feel so sad for the people of Japan, especially those villages that apparently were swept away. They can't find a train, a whole train- that is hard to get your brain around. The pictures that really shocked me were the day after, when the sun was peeking out again and these poor people were picking through the mud and massive debris. Ordinary people in little rubber boots, wrapped in blankets, looking at utter devastation. How can, what,  6 hours of Mother Nature's mayhem, destroy your world so completely and then, next morning,  the sun comes back out, the wind dies down, the water recedes  and everywhere else in the world, everyone just starts a new normal day, while you are looking at the end of everything you knew. That is man's fragility handed to him on a platter. We are so unheeding of the forces of the natural world until they bring us to our knees. We are all Japanese in those moments of complete vulnerability to destruction. Yesterday I checked the forsythia for yellow buds - yes they are budding- but what I saw, was a bird's nest built of twigs, twine, plastic bags, a little bit of everything. I was struck by the fact that it was still there after the very high winds we have had this past month . I have had lots of big tree limbs down after this month's rain and storms, but this little nest stayed put in a forsythia shrub. Go figure.  I wish the Japanese much sunshine and I hope the world helps them recover.