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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 20 2015, 8:13pm
Post #1 of 21
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Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the devastating 22 Feb earthquake in Christchurch.
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A reporter who covered the earthquake and its aftermath has now moved to Canada and has written this story about her experiences. It is, quite simply, incredible.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/...road-cones-worldwide
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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Patty
Immortal
Feb 21 2015, 1:23am
Post #4 of 21
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I usually spend 22 February a little somber anyway, as it was my mother's birthday. We miss her a lot, too.
Such a day of a loss for Christchurch. I fear there will be many more anniversaries before the pain of that day eases.
Permanent address: Into the West
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Bombadil
Half-elven
Feb 21 2015, 4:19am
Post #5 of 21
(593 views)
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Tore Bomby up...
As a former journalist Bom knows how
many people DON'T realize what it can do
to an On-Site journalist. THEY HAVE feelings, TOO!
ALSO...Read many of the Accompanying Companion pieces until litl' ol' Bom
couldn't HANDLE.. it any MORE.
"Someone Trapped for 28 Hour" REALLY?
Of course half way around OUR World
@ the Time..Didn't
Bother
Bomby much since, I didn't really know anyone involved
BUT, NOW feels like I do,
like you & Starling, darling...
Thank you....Keep on Truckin, through the Wreckage
WE your Tolkien Family THERE with you.
www.charlie-art.biz
"What Your Mind can conceive... charlie can achieve"
(This post was edited by Bombadil on Feb 21 2015, 4:22am)
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Starling
Half-elven
Feb 21 2015, 6:38am
Post #6 of 21
(624 views)
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Reading this really upset me this morning,
[In reply to]
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and it has taken me all day to process it.
I felt so terrible for her and it made me feel sick to think of what she went through, and is still going through. And as I read on, her thoughts triggered all sorts of memories and feelings for me.
I too have been troubled with thoughts of what I could or should have done on February 22nd, and also in the June earthquakes. Both times I was at school, and it wasn't until I was being interviewed and recorded for a research study that I began to unravel some of my regrets.
I thought about the childhood post traumatic stress following my father's sudden death that unexpectedly resurfaced for me. As a child I thought it was normal to 'see' my dying father when I entered a room. It certainly didn't feel normal to suddenly have these long forgotten intrusive images and feelings resurface during the earthquakes.
I started thinking about the sounds I hate now: car alarms, builiding alarms, helicopters. And the things that frighten me now that never did: turbulence in aeroplanes, thunder, high winds, sudden noises, doors slamming, heavy trucks rolling past.
And the constant, subconscious fear - is it over? Can it ever be over? What is going to happen to 'the gap', that space between the two main faults that is yet to unzip?
And we carry on, living our lives with a thin film of balance and functionality. The thin film is gradually growing thicker, but what lies beneath is always, constantly, sickeningly there. Sometimes I am so sad for my poor, broken city, and the broken people living in it. Those who left have escaped the agonisingly slow recovery, but their own emotional recovery is sometimes lonely, away from people who understand. I think about leaving but even thinking about it exhausts me. Living here exhausts me.
I remember the newspaper being delivered to my house on February 23rd, can you believe they didn't miss a day? I remember the photo of Olivia in the City Mall. She looked so young and fragile; I worried about her. I wondered where she had gone - I hadn't seen her name in The Press for a long time.
The responses in the comments under Olivia's story heartened me. They get it. They care. I really hope she reads them.
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cats16
Half-elven
Feb 21 2015, 8:08am
Post #7 of 21
(598 views)
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Thinking of everyone in Christchurch
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Quite sobering, indeed.
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
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Bombadil
Half-elven
Feb 21 2015, 12:30pm
Post #8 of 21
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Well, Writing about IT..helps you let it GO!
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Since your Fears,etc. are dispersed into our Heads
AND we get to carry THAT Weight around FOR you..
YOU shall feel Lighter
More Free from Fear..
Since much of it?.. is NOW
on the Other side of Our
WORLD...Inside our heads....
WE Gladly
WILL carry it for you
That weight has been
PROJECTED and we will
PROTECT you, anytime
Starling, darling
Your
Buddy
bomby who is Always
BEAMING
BACK love
www.charlie-art.biz
"What Your Mind can conceive... charlie can achieve"
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Annael
Immortal
Feb 21 2015, 4:23pm
Post #9 of 21
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as someone who experienced a severe trauma in childhood
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I can tell you the one thing that helped way over and above all the counseling: acupuncture. There is actually a specific acupuncture treatment for PTSD. After three of these treatments I remember waking up one morning and feeling better than I ever had since the incident - the underlying anxiety that had been my constant companion all my life was gone.
These events hardwire us, in a way, but the Chinese knew how to rewire even such deeply encoded changes. I highly recommend finding someone who does Five-Element Chinese medicine & acupuncture.
As for the survivor guilt, it helped me to think "I was spared because I have something to do in this life," finding out what that thing was, and doing it. In a way, my book is my offering on the altar of life.
Since evidence can be adduced and interpreted to corroborate a virtually limitless array of world views, the human challenge is to engage that world view or set of perspectives which brings forth the most valuable, life-enhancing consequences.
- Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
(This post was edited by Annael on Feb 21 2015, 4:25pm)
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 21 2015, 7:25pm
Post #10 of 21
(561 views)
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I wish I was there to give you a big hug.
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What do you plan to do today Starling? Will you be alone with your thoughts or with friends, or will you go to the public event? (I assume there will be one.)
I remember the newspaper being delivered to my house on February 23rd, can you believe they didn't miss a day?
I've been to a few emergency communications seminars in the last four years, and the lessons learned from Christchurch always feature. At one, it was said that the Press people knew they had to keep getting the newspaper out because it was the only means of communication for the majority of the city. As I understand it, it was delivered to everyone for free for the first week, to make everyone had the information they needed in those first few days.
As well as exhibiting one of the greater purposes of newspapers, I'm sure that the goal of always getting the newspaper out each day made the reporters feel they were making a tangible difference during a time of crisis.
BTW Olivia spoke at a conference I went to last year. It was clear to me that she was still traumatised by her experiences - I'm glad she's taken some time out, for her own well-being.
Also, the story was posted on an NZ journalism Facebook page and she replied to the supportive comments there, so I'm sure she's come across the replies to her story of Stuff. :)
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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Ethel Duath
Half-elven
Feb 21 2015, 11:04pm
Post #11 of 21
(569 views)
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about you and Christchurch on and off ever since, and again recently, although I had lost track of the timing. I was wondering if it felt like you all are living on Jello, both geologically and emotionally. You are amazing, you and your fellow pioneers, bushwhacking through the unknowable. I wish and pray for peace and stability inside each one of you there, and as you continue to be linked up in this together, almost like an organism--even though it's so terribly uncertain outwardly.
With you in spirit . . .
--Ethel
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Brethil
Half-elven
Feb 21 2015, 11:06pm
Post #12 of 21
(543 views)
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Bombadil
Half-elven
Feb 21 2015, 11:35pm
Post #13 of 21
(542 views)
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Read a Book...
By it... BY the Light of ONE Candle
.
Breath DEEP
set yourself FLYING
Doing LOOPS like smoke RINGS
DOING Back Flips among Seagulls
or STARFISH.. washing up on YOUR Shores
YOU will see by a single Candle
the
FACES of your
Family
FROM here..Appear Briefly & THEN?
Fade into your Background.
WHO will never LEAVE YOU ever!
ALONE
Hundreds of YOUR Family will Sleep
Soundly next to YOU tonight.
BREATH deep with the Sound of Snoring
from Family next to you...
zzzzzzzzzzz..
www.charlie-art.biz
"What Your Mind can conceive... charlie can achieve"
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zarabia
Tol Eressea
Feb 22 2015, 3:40am
Post #14 of 21
(554 views)
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I wish I could think of anything even approaching adequate to say, but I can't. All I can do is send virtual {{{hugs}}}, and let you know I'm thinking of you.
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round
~Do You Realize?, The Flaming Lips
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Starling
Half-elven
Feb 22 2015, 4:23am
Post #15 of 21
(549 views)
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Funnily enough, I had to work today, or at least do some work related things. A new specialist for my workplace arrived last night with his family, so today we took them out for lunch and then to the motel so they can settle in and recover from their jetlag. They are international citizens - originally from Russia, and living and working in Israel and the USA, before coming to NZ. Their children have interesting accents! They kept us entertained talking about their experiences of the kiwi accent so far, including wondering why the airport announcer kept talking about the 'chicken'. 
That took up quite a bit of the day. In the afternoon I took Midgey for a nice big walk around the river where we usually go, and I took some red and white geraniums from my garden to drop in the river, for the river of flowers.
The River of Flowers is an opportunity to: - come together as a city through a river of flowers
- let go through dropping flowers into the river
- hold two minutes of silence to remember those who have died, been injured, or who have lost their homes
- write notes of hope and post them on a tree of hope
- acknowledge the importance of the river(s) in the life and heritage of the city
- give a token of respect back to the river(s)
- show the connections between communities - particularly those most affected
- celebrate our strength - resilience and supporting one another
I wrote a note and attached it to the tree of hope, while Midgey 'watered' the tree. Then I dropped my flowers in the river and we followed them all the way along and back around our usual walking route. I thought about Olivia Carville, who wrote the article Ataahua posted, and hoped she was okay. It was a lovely day today with gentle rain, which felt so nice after all this time of drought.
At home I caught up on some gardening and noticed that the conifers I planted a few days before the February earthquake have now reached the top of the fence. They nearly died after the earthquake because I couldn't water them, but they have not only survived, but thrived.
(This post was edited by Starling on Feb 22 2015, 4:26am)
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Bombadil
Half-elven
Feb 22 2015, 12:13pm
Post #16 of 21
(522 views)
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Starling have you ever heard of the...
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Movie "The Secret"..?
When my Goldberry passed into the West
OF course, bomby was a mess, A TrainWREAK
AND, it wasn't until a girlfriend Loaned my THAT movie
that bomby was able to pull myself out of a Crisis
of Faith.... you can watch it on-line @
The Secret.tv...for about $5 One time Stream
BUT, Bom thinks it is SSOoo...
worth it
to buy it,
So you can sit, Pause it,
and Take Notes...
There is ALSO, another phenomenal Film called
"What the BLEEP do we know?" that came out
about the same time...{2004}, which will help you.
Since watching both,
Bom has bought the
Book versions of
BOTH!
They may help you get passed this
Tragedy...
It is NEVER to late to see the Light
@ the End of This Tunnel...
www.charlie-art.biz
"What Your Mind can conceive... charlie can achieve"
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 22 2015, 10:50pm
Post #17 of 21
(510 views)
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These conifers are a joy and a promise...like the River of Flowers. Remembering, letting go of that which needs to be let go, holding on to that which can be restored, and holding on to one another...so important.
*Hugs*, Starling!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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swordwhale
Tol Eressea
Feb 23 2015, 6:26pm
Post #18 of 21
(501 views)
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that would make sense...
I live in a place relatively free of flood and tornado and hurricane, and our "earthquakes" are miniscule.
I can only imagine what's it is to be in the midst of such disaster.
Healing and hope.
Na 'Aear, na 'Aear! Mýl 'lain nallol, I sûl ribiel a i falf 'loss reviol...
To the sea, to the sea, the white gulls are crying, the wind is blowing and the white foam is flying...
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Starling
Half-elven
Feb 24 2015, 6:11am
Post #19 of 21
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You should have seen me this morning,
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trying to explain to our new (from overseas) staff member that he wouldn't necessarily be able to go and help the children during a big shake because he wouldn't be able to walk, let alone stand up. 
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