Haiti.....and the lessons I have learnt

Tell all my mourners
To mourn in red –
Cause there ain’t no sense
In my bein’ dead.

Langston Hughes,
(1902 – 1967)

It is with utter dismay and shock that the world has helplessly watched Haiti crumble. So sudden, so terrible, horrific and completely devastating. Who has control over natural disasters? Who can calm nature when she lashes out?
The Earthquake in Haiti has destroyed many lives and has probably changed the destiny of a few. But it has also shown that we must live each day as if it were our last day on earth.
I have learnt that I must forgive very quickly, find reason to laugh a whole lot more, and remember to tell my loved ones how much I love them daily. I can't even imagine how people who lost loved ones in Haiti feel right now? No chance to say goodbye or to give one last hug?
The devastation may have happened in Haiti, but we are all casualties.The poem by one of my favorite poets
John Pepper Clark Bekederemo- The Casualities, really describes it well as I'm sure you will agree. Excerpts below.

THE CASUALTIES
by John Pepper Clark Bekederemo
(1935 - Present)

The casualties are not only those who are dead;
They are well out of it.
The casualties are not only those who are wounded,
Though they await burial by installment
The casualties are not only those who have lost
Person or property, hard as it is
To grasp for a touch that some
May not know is not there
The casualties are not those led away by night;
The cell is a cruel place, sometimes a heaven,
No where as absolute as the grave
The casualties are not those who started
A fire and now cannot put to out. Thousands
Are burning that had no say in the matter.
The casualties are not only those who escaping
The shattered shell become prisoners in
A fortress of falling walls.