The Bigger Picture

I was going to blog about my first experience with acupuncture. My diagnosis from a Chinese doctor who smelled like he was smoking a joint in the back room before taking my pulse and reading my tongue. And coming to the conclusion that I am cold, lacking yang. I was going to write about my emotional upheaval these past few weeks and how I am trying to reconnect with my body both physically and emotionally so that we can finally try again to have another baby. I was going to go into what I've learned so far and how now that I am actively on this journey the appointment I've been waiting weeks for with the miscarriage specialist is suddenly tomorrow, arranged through my GP with no warning. Life tends to throw these curve balls at you both good and bad.

And then this morning I woke up to the news that Haiti had a terrible earthquake, hundreds dead and missing, then later in the day it was thousands and then my mother called me. A close family friend she reminded me was living in Haiti and her mother was visiting her. Her father still in New York had received a scratchy phone call from her mother and then an email, they were in separate places yesterday and they were both fine but they haven't been heard from since. The mother worked for the UN for 30 years, grew up in Africa and has been in many war zones over her career so if there is anyone you would want to be with in a disaster situation it would be her.

Needless to say our friend is a savvy and intelligent, worldly career diplomat but who still makes time every Christmas, together with her equally savvy and intelligent and worldly daughter, to bake from scratch five, count them 1, 2, 3, 4, five, of the most delicious desserts you have ever eaten, for my parents' Christmas Eve party. We often wish we could be flies on the wall of their kitchen when they whip them up. I always find it hard to picture them covered in flour, hair speckled with chocolate and egg, cursing at the oven, probably because they wouldn't be. Because they are that poised and equally good at doing whatever it is they set out to accomplish for themselves, even baking desserts for a family Christmas party.

So you can understand why I don't feel like posting about my yin right now. Like most times when disasters strike all my problems seem so laughable its hard to take myself seriously. This is one of those times. I know our friends will be safe, if anyone can get off a desperate island it would be former a UN official and a employee of Bill Clinton's but I pray for their safe return and for the people of Haiti who already have suffered too much.

I am donating to Oxfam please help Haiti if you can.