Tsunami Waves: Be like a Child

Losing your home: all of your possessions, your family, your friends, all in one moment of cataclysmic disaster... the very thought is probably unfathomable for you and I. On December 26th, 2004, both disaster and great loss became all too real for the people of Asia when one of the most catastrophic tsunami's ever recorded touched down, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.

As adults, we're often expected to be strong and to show courage in the face of great tragedy; if not for ourselves, then for the children. But if we can--for just a moment--hold back our pride, we'll see that much can be learned from the grace and strength of a child...

Rewind to just days after the tsunami hit. Put yourself in the shoes of an Indonesian adult who'd just lost everything and everyone near and dear. Could you be strong and graceful under those circumstances? It's highly doubtful. Now, imagine again what it would be like to have this same catastrophe happen to you, only this time you're a 6-year old Indonesian child. Your first instinct might be to say, "Its impossible for a child to handle that!" I think most people would say the same thing. But children are not like you and I: children have an uncanny ability to forgive; to love; and to adapt, where adults are often too stubborn, too afraid and too set in their ways to do so.

Adults often complain about the most trivial of things: we complain about being unhappy with our jobs; our homes; our cars; our relationships... we act as if our problems are life or death, when in truth, most of us have no idea what that really means... the children in the photo do.