Unspeakable

In one week, I finished my 18 month mission serving sex trafficking survivors in Cebu, spent one day in Tokyo, frolicked on a cruise liner along the shores of Mexico and gorged myself with food, returned to an empty yet comfortable townhome in Irvine (deemed the safest city in the US five years straight), and now my sensibilities shocked and invaded by an unspeakable catastrophe. I'm wondering if I'm in the same universe or simply jumping from one planet to another. It's surreal.

I'm having the hardest time wrapping my mind around the destruction and suffering of the country of Haiti as a result of Tuesday's earthquake. The images are searing and the reality unimaginable. But I am also amazed of the generosity of those present-yet- far-away and courage of on-the-ground individual who seek to run into the darkness to rescue and help. The world is so full of unspeakable suffering. But there are many who seek to be the Light.

photos by Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times