In the wake of the horrible earthquake and tsunamis this week, I had what Oprah would call an “Ah-ha” moment. It is more important than ever that we come together as humanity in all areas of living. This morning there is a group I’m connected to, and I strongly support, who are holding a peaceful parade demonstration in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.  They have gathered to promote the same idea, that we really are One Human Family. It’s not a difficult concept to embrace. You only have to acknowledge that we all are only skin and bones, blood and brains, heart and soul.

What has moved me to write this post is that there are competing efforts trying to cause fear and distrust among us. Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t bad people out there who will take an opportunity to do bad things on purpose. They are more plentiful than I would like. I’m specifically talking about people who are focused on creating the emotion of fear to guide our daily thoughts and actions.

One example is the 2012 predictions of the world ending. I found this advertisement recently for the 2012 Survival Guide. I don’t know if it’s true or not ~ it doesn’t matter. It probably wouldn’t hurt to follow some of the advice in the guide. Living in a rural community, you never know when the electric will go out or the well will go bad or a multitude of other things that can happen. Being prepared is always a good thing. If you live in an urban or suburban community, there’s still things that can and do go wrong and being prepared to live a few hours or even days without creature comforts like water and power on demand may be a good thing.

The other side of that coin is that I’m not prepared to live waiting for the sky to fall, Henny Penny… I have faith that as One Human Family, we are all connected and when times get tough, we look out for each other. I’ve lived though times of struggle and times of reward and no matter where I’ve been on the ride of life, there are people there with me who support me and are there to celebrate with me.

So, how are you prepared for challenging times? Who is around you that can support you and you support them in times of physical or emotional challenge? Have you said thank you recently to someone who was there for you in the past? I’ll be sending this post to a few people in my network who I truly appreciate. It matters when you reach out and touch someone’s life. Make each moment count!

UPDATE: other people are thinking about this too… Here’s Jamie Lee Curtis post on Huffington Post