We had a really nice Christmas with my sisters, my nephew and my parents. We ate too much and gave and received lots of nice gifts and spent time thinking about how really grateful we are to have each other for another year. It's really hard to think about your family being altered by time, distance or death. I know it happens to all of us, but the thought of it makes me feel as if my feet aren't on solid ground. So this year, I'm grateful that most of us are still here. I hope you had a great holiday with people that you love.
I forgot, until I saw on CNN this morning, that today is the 4th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Four years ago today, an enormous, magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean spawned a horrible series of powerful tsunamis that devastated the coastlines of Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The tsunamis killed more than 225,000 people, many whose bodies were never recovered. One of the things at the time that amazed me about the tsunami was the fact that the earthquake and tsunami were of such force that the entire planet wobbled on it's axis by about a half an inch. Islands off of the coast of Indonesia were permanently moved by 20 meters. Amazing. We like to believe that the ground beneath our feet is solid. Clearly, that is not always the case. The morning of December 26, 2004, the people who lived along these coastlines started their day just like any other and then, just like that, it was all ripped away from them. It makes me really thankful for what I have.
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