“Mother Nature.”  I am sure that most of us have used this term at one time or another.  At first it seems like it would conjure up in our minds such things as mountain and valley scenes, wildlife all around and all the things nature provides for us that sustain us.  But there is another side of her.  It is big and it is violent.  We call these things hurricanes, tornados, cyclones, typhoons, volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.  Sometimes we just say bad storms.  They cause floods and fires.  She can bury us with snow or drown us in massive rains.  She can make it so hot that we can’t survive or so cold that we stand little chance of survival without some kind of protection.  With all these things offered up by “Mother Nature” comes death and destruction. 

There is also another side.  It is so small that we can’t see it with the naked eye.  She brings to us bacteria and viruses that have plagued us since the beginning of time.  She even provides vectors to carry on her work such as rats to carry the fleas that brought us the bubonic plague.  Ticks that ride around on mice and other animals that carry diseases.  Do not forget all the diseases that are carried by insects like flies and mosquitoes.

Maybe “Mother Nature” is not the best term to describe nature.  It seems like she is always there, waiting to do something at every turn.  But where would we be without her?  We also do our part against nature as we strive to maintain ourselves and try to make things better for ourselves.  We have poisoned our air and our water with so much of our affluence.  We have killed most of the animals that we think might do us harm and many that did us no harm by destroying their habitat.  Are we cutting down more trees than we can grow?  Are we fishing out our oceans that have offered up their bounty for millenniums?  “It is not nice to fool Mother Nature.” 

As we contemplate the latest catastrophe in Asia, with all of its grieving and suffering, we will help those in need because that is what we do.  With all the things we deal with individually, daily, this just seems like we understand that this is something that could happen to us all.  So we help all those who need our help with the only thought being that they are our fellow humans.  We will continue to commune with “Mother Nature” and we will endure.