Snowstorm hit Cape Cod yesterday dumping over a foot of heavy, whipped cream like snow on everything. Throughout the night, our house was pelted with large tree limbs, flying debris, with gusts that had to have been hurricane strength. It sounded like the winds in the Perfect Storm boat audio.

A high pitched whistle-scream that even this morning is still occasionally echoing through the trees and snow-covered houses.


Some homes on our street got snow blasted on the southern side of their houses all the way to the roof. If you come down our road, it has the appearnce of just towers of snow from certain angles. We couldn't see out of any of the windows in the bedrooms. Total white-out.

The temperatures dipped into the stunningly-freezing area and coated the entire mess with a thin sheet of icy top. When you go outside, before you hear the muffled crunch of snow, you hear the tinkling sounds of this top layer of ice cracking with each step. And the snow is deep, up to your knees in most areas. In drifted sections, it's almost belly-button level and higher.

As we shoveled out the driveway yesterday, I kept looking at the trees. There's something about snow covered trees that has always calmed me. The sounds of the kids playing in the snow off and on all day calms me, too. There's even something about wet mittens and gloves, hats and scarves hanging near the fireplace to dry that just makes my heart happy. It was almost as if this most powerful snow storm was meant to bring peace and not destruction. To quiet things down, to calm this small part of the world, to slow things to paces where you have time to stop and look at the trees. During the blizzard of '78, many died. During this storm, I've not seen any news of any deaths associated with the snow.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, a tsunami caused by a mag 9 earthquake killed dozens of thousands of people. An earthquake of 8.1 magnitude hit just a week before in another area of the ocean and caused no human deaths at all, and little destruction.

Mount Saint Helens continues to have small earthquakes and other pre-volcanic activity... the earth itself seems to be going through as many life-altering changes as humans are politically, religiously and socially.

Sometimes I wonder if our human energy effects that of the earth's, or if it is the other way around. We are effected by the moon; and so is the earth. Could it be we are also effected by the earth's inner-shifts and powerful weather systems and phenomenon? And could it be we are all effected at various levels, and for some the changes have a calming effect and for others, complete anxiety? Maybe some people aren't effected much at all, too.

While reading the stories from those who survived the tsunami, I noticed that survival is not always about the fittest. It's about luck and flukes at times. A baby survived on a mattress, a woman under a car was lifted up with the car and flipped over to safety. Locals who were just swept into something to grab a hold of and hold on tight, as if the current itself was guiding luck and fate. I always marvel at the survival stories; some about sheer determination and a will to live, to fight, to be so unwillingly to leave this earth. And others who are almost willing to accept the fate of death, who pretty much believe they are going to die, but are saved by luck alone.

And those who have both luck and determination on their side are those who usually end up saving others, passing the luck and determination around as though it were something tangible. My heart leaps into my throat when I read stories about people who refuse to give up, not only on themselves, but on anyone around them, even in the most unexpected of circumstances.

Here's a few donation links to help those who survived carry on:

doctors without borders

direct relief

world concern