where there is love...

It is two weeks today since the February quake. It seems a lifetime since we have experienced a lifetime of emotion and trauma in these days.

Many people speak of the huge changes in their lives since the quake. Most tragically, some are living without those they have loved most dearly. This is the ultimate loss.

For many, the loss of home and the security of work has been unbearable.

Others of us consider ourselves to be among the more fortunate. While we may not have lost family, friends, homes and livelihood, we have all lost the security of living on stable ground.

Is it possible to live with such insecurity? The answer is clearly yes. People have been living in traumatic environments since forever. Even in our own "civilized times" our sisters and brothers in different parts of the world live in poverty and persecution every day of their short lives. War-zones are densely populated. Yes, it is possible to live with such insecurity.

But we cannot live in these times with the 'fenced-and-locked-gate-quarter-acre-section' mentality.

In our city in these days we have fed and encouraged our neighbours and our enemies. The fences around our properties may not have physically fallen, but the reality is that these polite little boundaries are no longer important. We have realised that a new way of living is necessary.

And this 'new way' blesses us with new priorities. Our eyes have been opened and we have different and broader perspectives. We have seen all too vividly that life on earth is short, and that much of what we had placed our hope in, is revealed as unstable.

But love has flourished anew. And where there is love, there is God.