Number Three

'Man plans. God laughs.'

I planned. God laughed.

The plan: On Friday 19 February 2010 I was to fly from Miami, USA to Santiago, Chile. I was to live and take Spanish classes in Santiago for 2 weeks and then make my way to Valparaiso around 8 March for orientation at Pontificia Universidad Catolica. God giggled: In the days preceding my 19 February departure, the cumulative effect of several life-circumstances (namely, my proclivity for taking my time completing tasks and my disdain for feeling rushed) compelled me to push back my date of departure to Thursday 4 March 2010.

On Saturday 27 February 2010, God's giggle evolved into roaring laughter. As most of you know, early on Saturday morning a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck central Chile. The epicenter of the quake was near Concepcion, a city that is about 350 miles south of Valparaiso. Valparaiso and Santiago have both been affected by the earthquake. To what extent, particularly in Valpo, I am not quite sure (beyond what I can glean from news reports and photographs). I was able to get in touch with the other Rotary scholar, Rachel, that will be living in Valparaiso with me as well. She is currently taking Spanish classes in Santiago and was out in city when the earthquake struck. Thankfully she is alright, albeit a bit shaken up (quite literally... figuratively too). Check out Rachel's blog for her incredible account of the earthquake.

Rachel is the only person on the ground in Chile that I have been able to get in touch with. I am trying to make contact with the administrators at PUCV as well as the Rotarians in Valparaiso in an effort to assess the situation and make a decision about whether I need to change my plans yet again.

I woke up to God's laughter on Saturday morning. Accompanying God's laughter was a deluge – to the point of overwhelm – of e-mails, text messages, phone calls, even facebook messages, from my concerned family and friends. Words are inadequate when I attempt to convey precisely how grateful I am to be blessed with so much love in my life. I am so appreciative of the outpouring of concern I have received and I send a sincere thank you to all of my friends and family for the support and compassion.

It's a curious emotion – knowing that I should have been in Santiago on Saturday morning. My absence can be attributed to a fortunate turn of fate. I have come to recognize these sorts of circumstances as part of life's splendid serendipity. In my mind, I was very reluctant to delay my flight. Logic and reason told me to go to Chile, acclimate, brush up on my Spanish. Plus I was eager to get there and begin the adventure that I have so diligently planned for nearly 2 years. In my heart, however, it just felt right to stay in Florida for just a little while longer. My heart whispered for me to stay, to avoid the stress of haste. I have learned this lesson repeatedly during my 24 years of existence: follow feelings – a serendipitous twist of fate always awaits just down the road, if only your mind and heart allow you to recognize it.

Finally, I always like to think that contained within every challenge a seed of greatness awaits. In 2 months the world has seen 2 significant natural disasters, first in Haiti and now in Chile. Let the great tragedies that have recently shattered the lives of so many of our friends and family serve as seed, a reminder that every single person on this planet is united by the common bond of our shared humanity. We all inhabit this wild, untamed world together. All of humanity is trying to survive and flourish together. We must not let the concrete and comfort that separates us from the Earth fool us into believing that we do not live on a planet teeming with wilderness. No amount of humanity's progress and technological feats can alter the reality that this planet is very much alive and natural. An extraordinarily unnecessary amount of man-made plight plagues humanity – war, poverty, economic recessions, etc. These examples of injustice, intolerance, ignorance and extreme selfishness pit men against men and brothers versus brothers. It is challenge enough merely to survive and thrive on this planet.

The seed of greatness that I find in the midst of the chaos of Mother Nature's wrath is an idea – the idea of the simple, perfect bond that we all share. The idea that every person on Earth is connected, as humanity strives to flourish on this wild, unpredictable and beautiful planet.

My thoughts and prayers are with those that are suffering in Haiti and in Chile. May the reality of their tragedy soon become a memory, may they have the courage and strength to remain resilient and hopeful, and, of course, may God soon replace their suffering with laughter.

(Image, though not entirely related to the contents of this post – unless you see it as a symbol of Earth's erratic beauty and splendor even in apparently treacherous places – courtesy of the artistic prowess of my soul sister, Gabriela Filasky.)