Fearing the coming night...

Cries pierce the night air, without discrimination or favoritism, from the old and young alike. Rubble kicks up nearly-toxic dust, poisoning the air that has been taken for granted for so long. Death hovers nearby, his work already plentiful but more of his task still at hand. Crimson water runs down the gutters in trembling waves and there is a sense of foreboding doom, that this already-ravaged city is still shaking from its shanty core and the rest could give way at any minute.

Welcome to a night in Port-au-Prince.

We, as a society, can't comprehend the damage, death, carnage or destruction covering over Haiti as I write this. The horrifically gaudy numbers continue to expand, bringing a sense of temporary hopelessness to those who didn't experience the quake but felt its tremors deep within our souls. So much life, smothered out like a campfire without campers or a singular candle in the honeymoon suite lacking its intended lovers. Gone in an instant and so much more thereafter.

Cities rise, and empires fall but the common thread that binds us as humans will always be our conscience. It governs our actions and, though we stray from them far too often, we know they are there as a blueprint to a life worth remembering. When our own fall, or are buried by the reality of a flawed world, it is in our DNA to rush to their aid, to comfort them in time of need or send out prayers to the skies, if we can't be there with them. Suffering spirits see eye-to-eye, and the bondage of human suffering extends to those living outside of the magma residing within its center.

This life-altering tragedy is gut-wrenching but can be a defining moment for so many. There are heroes, right now, working for the sake of others. Fighters, lifting blocks of concrete with every ounce of their being, praying that under this stubborn obstacle will be another life instead of the rampant death misting over the city. Caretakers comforting the broken children, lost without parents and shaking from the overbearing fear.

Heroes, one and all...

So frail is the human condition, yet so precious. I find myself wondering, wandering, and look to the moments ahead. Life is more than a gift; it's a calling and challenge to make the most of what we have during the minuscule moments we're given. To ignore this call and allow it to fall on deaf ears would be remiss...or better yet, cowardly.