This will be a short post…because there is so much emotion involved right now when I speak about the earthquake that occurred in Haiti on January 12, 2010.

I have many friends and family that live in Haiti, and there were a few days of trepidation while we waited for news about our loved ones.  Thankfully, they were all safe, but 150,000 of their neighbors and fellow Haitians did not survive the 7.0 earthquake.

And those of us who are distant from the cleanup and have no contact with the souls that still suffer in Haiti–we sit with idle hands and wonder…why?

Despite Pat Robertson’s absolutely inhumane remark that Haitians “made a pact with the devil” in order to be freed from French rule, these devastating tragedies occur in order to bring attention to an issue that has been overlooked for decades.  With its corrupt government (check out pictures of the President’s home before the quake), lack of aid from other nations due to its inability to provide any useful resources in return, and deforestation that precludes much farming by the natives, Haiti has had a really bad rap for far too long.

Now I could never justify the multitude of deaths that occurred, and I cannot imagine how horrible the mourning survivors must feel, but perhaps God can.  If, in his grand design, these souls had given up the remainder of their lives in order to bring Haiti’s plight to the world, then they were truly angels on earth.

I just finished reading The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein.  Great book to open the discussion of the purpose of animals in our world.  In the book, Enzo is a dog who has reached his last animal incarnation, and his next life will be that of a human.  The book is sweet, if somewhat predictable, but its main premise is that animals are of a lower intellectual caste than humans.  Yet Enzo thinks as a human does, with an awareness of his emotions, right and wrong, and the relationships between those he observes.  Do our animals do this, or do we simply assume that they react merely out of instinct and external stimuli?

Interesting thought.  Comments?

I believe in past lives. I believe that we choose our lessons to learn when we materialize in the physical world, and since God gives us free choice, sometimes we forget, or choose not to, learn some of those lessons. So what happens to those lessons?

They reappear in the next life until we get it through our thick skulls that there’s something to learn here! I could hang here all night with examples: the girl that continuously chooses the same kind of partner that she knows is not good for her (aka the loser); Taking the same type of non-fulfilling job we’ve had before thinking that its duties, although exactly the same as the last job we had, will somehow be more fulfilling in the new surroundings; eating the same bad food that made us fat in the first place.

I don’t think it’s God that rains these lessons down on us, so no need to fear him–there’s enough in ourselves to fear, for heaven’s sake. If we simply opened our awareness, and paid attention to what’s happening to us over and over, and what actions we take in response, maybe we can actually create a different outcome with modified behavior.

To quote Albert Einstein: We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

So if you have recurring issues, then think back–way back–and decide if you want to experience the pain and anguish they cause you repeatedly. If yes, well, heck, rock on! But if you are ready for new lessons, then reconsider your previous responses when these issues resurface, and try something different. That’s how we grow.