Like many of you, I’ve seen far too many photographs of the destruction and devastation in Haiti. Today, I’ve been looking for the proper words.

Over the past few days, I’ve been speechless about the events in Haiti. There are some things that a warm hand-knitted scarf or soft blanket won’t heal. And you watch the news, hear the radio, hear people in the street talk about what’s happening, as we all feel helpless watching footage without being there to hug, hold or soothe.

It’s these types of days where we sit in our houses, some tidy, some not, but most of them absolute luxury compared to millions of other people among our books and furniture and full cupboards, wondering how we ended up on the other side of the television. Far away from the news, the tears, the screams, the visceral reality of life in less fortunate places we feel helpless and lucky and selfish for complaining about a stain on the sofa.

It’s these days where everything comes into perspective, but for how long?

When the media trucks pull away, the bodies are buried, the wounds are healing, we retreat into our own little worlds and once again feel righteous when we get angry when we don’t quite make the train, step in gum or someone stole our morning newspaper. Once again we feel okay and drink $5 lattes instead of texting money for a good cause, we go out for $30 dinners, we pretend that everything is okay.

Then inevitably a few months later, something catastrophic happens somewhere where life was already trying, dusty and difficult before the incident that causes us to feel lucky again, once again we see the world as it really is instead of by what happens in our own individual bubbles.

All the good that’s happening now? All the money and volunteers and prayers going to Haiti is proof that kindness and goodness exist. I just wish that we would remember how we feel now when there’s nothing demanding our attention in the media, and that that tiny paragraph buried deep in the international section about a village bombed and destroyed or some other atrocity, warrants the same sense of loss and anger and kindness.

Resources for organizations that are helping on the ground in Haiti can be found all over the web, but I’d suggest having a look here, here and here.