After spending time as I do reading blogs, today I turned back to my own, which I began in 2005. I felt forced to delete almost all of the posts from back then,..not only did they seem trite and somewhat ridiculous, their tone almost suggested that they were written by someone very different than myself...strange how six years can change a body. Back then life was quite a different one... steady job, married & plodding forward at a snail's pace. Now it has changed immeasurably, just as things do in a moment for people everywhere... single, no longer a travel blogger, and with disagreeable 'big' birthdays looming ahead, life seems a little more unsteady...

Yet nothing can be as unsteady as the shaking felt under the feet of our Kiwi pals over the last day or so. One friend's family in Christchurch escaped with their lives but no longer have a home. What a dose of perspective.

After all these terrible happenings, we can be left feeling helpless...but we aren't..we're lucky, and we can help:

http://www.redcross.org.nz/donate

My thoughts are with everyone over in Christchurch and on the Banks Peninsula...