The List

I mentioned a couple of posts back that my amazing friend Jackie had given me the Happy 101 Award, and I promised to make a list of 10 things that make me happy.  Recently I discovered that the lovely Luiza has given me this award, too.  Now, you all know that I've been feeling a bit blue, so as tickled as I was to receive the awards, honestly, I was struggling with even the thought of making a list.  At the same time, I really like the idea of such lists, as they can help shake one out of melancholia and other solipsistic tendencies. My own problems and worries, after all, are mine.  And they are tiny in the scheme of things.

Tonight I type at my desk.  Beneath my window, the city is uncharacteristically quiet.  No sirens wail, no car alarms squeal, no men roar with liquor and anger.  The world seems at peace, and yet I know that this is an illusion.  When I climb into bed, pictures of Haiti will stream through my mind.  What can we say or think in the face of such devastation?  My friend Lily wrote a beautiful post about Haiti and about painting and about breakfast and hope.  Her words left me thinking of beauty, and of making something good and true and real in the face of unbearable loss.  Sometimes it's the only way I know to defeat grief.  

and so we paint
and so we weave
and so we plant
and so we read
and so we teach
a child to care

and so we reach
beyond despair

Here's my list tonight of 10 things (in no particular order):

1. Craft Hope for Haiti
2. Doctors Without Borders
3. American Red Cross
4. Heifer International
5. Care
6. World Concern
7. International Medical Corps
8. Habitat for Humanity
9. World Food Program
10. Save the Children

Thinking of you tonight, grateful for what you give the world every single day.