7 years on from that fateful day when the earth shook like it had never before in our lifetimes. A minute passed like a year passes and it seemed that the earth would shake today until it left nothing standing. We lived through that moment and moved on, but in that moment the world for many had come to a standstill,forever!
The fear and horror of that moment haunted all of us for the moments and days to follow. The scenes would captivate our imaginations for many more days, months and years to follow. The height and depth to which human spirit and character could fall was brought to the fore by the moment of fear we had lived through. The fear, the horror, the sadness brought us to life as humans, the opportunity created by the destruction unmasked many animals living amongst us as humans. These vultures fed of the dead, while many saints saved whatever semblance of life they could. But throughout this whole time we witnessed the power of fear driving human nature but what we also saw was the power of forgetting driving human nature.
When fear made many afraid of the very neighborhoods they once inhabited, the power of forgetting what these souls had gone through made other take advantage of them. We are strange beings driven by fear, but stranger still is how we forget that fear when it suits us.
Today even the images of that destruction, do not evoke fear amongst many of us, the fear that once transformed into compassion and care for the affected. Prayer services were held then, today that moment forgotten when millions of lives stopped forever. The power of fear may be immense when we experience it but then again we just forget... we just forget!
(A silent prayer for all those who lost their lives on October 8th 2005, may their souls rest in peace Ameen!)