It’s the second week of March and the cold still lingers in Athens.  One night, the winds howled so furiously that I was kept awake throughout the night. The next day in the late afternoon it snowed!  By the time the layers of snowflakes rested on the green plants in my backyard it was already night fall. I hoped to take a nice photo with the sun shining on the snow, but it got too dark outside.  By the next afternoon the snow  had completely melted. I was lucky enough to get at least one shot of the snow flakes on a rosemary shrub.

The flowers that have blossomed on my plum tree are telling me that spring is almost here, but the new season does not brings any joy. How do we now welcome Spring after a long harsh winter? Do we forget the deaths caused by the winter storms in the U.S and Europe? What about the winter flooding in Brazil, Australia and Pakistan that caused deaths and left many people homeless. And how can we forget the catastrophic earthquake in New Zealand and now the Biblical catastrophe in Japan?  Would we be delusional be so welcoming of the new season when another catastrophe might be looming around the corner?

It has been prophesied in the Bible and other texts that events like these would happen. People don’t want to believe in the prophecies. They want to believe that they are Gods ruling the earth. But, clearly we do not rule the earth.  It can all end with a tidal wave, an earthquake or a fire.  Atlantis, according to Plato, was destroyed  in one day by floods.  It was a technologically advanced island, but the inhabitants had become greedy and arrogant.

Sound familiar?

Many people don’t believe that there was such a place, they see Atlantis as just a myth. But, as with many myths there is an underlying moral lesson. It is a ‘myth’ that warns future civilizations about the consequences of abusing power.

We have not adhered to the warning and now all we can do is prepare. Prepare for the worst.  So, grab and hold on to the tallest tree. Oh but there aren’t any-they have been burnt down. Well then, grab on to the traffic, and telephone poles when the floods come.

“One kind word can warm three winter months“.  ~Japanese Proverb