Back from Haiti, now back to Haiti

www.FollowMeToHaiti.org

I just returned FROM Haiti and am now preparing to return TO Haiti. The people of Haiti need your help and support – today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. Please let me know if I can help you help Haiti. If you are not working with a group or organization on Haiti relief, please join the Follow Me To Haiti effort. Thank you for all you are doing.

Follow Me To Haiti

www.FollowMeToHaiti.org UPDATE

As has been the case this week, lots of changes from moment to moment. I cancelled my American Airlines flight when I was offered a flight direct to Port-au-Prince, eliminating the more limited cargo space and the long and dangerous trek from Santo Domingo into PaP. This will get me into PaP faster and also allowed me to pick up the generously donated tents from Boy Scout Troop 732 (200 much-needed tents). Cherie with Reach Out To Haiti (www.ReachOutToHaiti.com) has been instrumental in coordinating this flight along with emergency aid and transport earlier in the week. The Hearts Out to Haiti (www.HeartsOutToHaiti.org) group reciprocated the emergency relief by getting some people from Cherie’s team out on one of their flights and it has inspired me to see everyone working together with the same goal — helping those who need it most.

We are still looking for fuel to support additional flights next week, but are finding that asking more and more of you to spread the word is opening many doors and creating many opportunities to get things done more efficiently and effectively… so keep up the good work. By working with many groups, we are isolating areas with the most need and working together to take immediate action. Please keep us posted on needs that you hear of or from groups you are working with and do not hesitate to ask us for help.
Check the website for the latest and stay-tuned for updates.

Lots of people to thank and I want to get that list out there, but for today… you know who you are and we could not be doing any of this without you.

Three reasons why we are working so hard to get aid into Haiti and distribute it to those most in need.

Visions of Haiti – 2009

I shot these images (and many, many, many more) last year in Haiti. I returned with a profound sense of sorrow. I could not believe that this beautiful country with such amazing people could be in such a state of poverty. Haiti was so close to us, yet so far away.

Finding joy in Haiti - 2009

Now that I see how high a price Haiti has paid to finally receive the attention it deserves, I wonder what the future holds. How long will the support last? Will the Haitian government make the changes it must make to survive and will the people be amenable to the change? Will the support end when the images of suffering cease to dominant the nightly news and the daily papers? Will we do what we do in spite of our promises following every global catastrophe… forget? This is far from a political blog, so my desire to drone on and share my strong feelings on the subject will end now. In closing, I just want to ask that we take the incredible capacity for love and giving that we so richly embrace following tragedy and never, ever forget.

Adaptation

My dogs live a very structured life. For example, when I let them out this morning, they sprinted twice around the pool, relieved themselves in the yard and then enthusiastically bounced to their food and water bowls. I always keep their bowl full of fresh water and their morning ritual begins with a fevered slurping from the stylish skull & crossbones decorated dish.  Today was different. I could see from inside the house that the bowl was filled to the brim. yet the dogs kept looking down at the bowl and then back to me with a perplexed look. It seems the atypical South Florida cold snap created a phenomenon that neither man nor beast had encountered before (well, at least not this man or those beasts). The water in the bowl was frozen solid and as I looked around, I noticed icicles on the large oak tree in the yard and frost on the window.

A January morning in South Florida

Having an uncanny ability to think on my feet, I gathered up my winter gear and headed out into the freezing temperatures to bring some small sense of normalcy to these two very sweet and innocent creatures of habit. To avoid further disruption to their routine, I put both dogs in their sweaters and took them for their morning walk. Aside from the humiliation each must have felt at having to wear matching argyle sweaters, they went about their day. They have no idea why their water was frozen, nor do they seem to comprehend why they sometimes they have to wear clothes. I do these things for their own good.

Dogs are not always good at adapting to changing circumstances and sometimes business people are not either. I mean no disrespect. Being locked into the details of a growing business can be a tremendous challenge and sometimes it is difficult to see change coming and even more difficult to quickly adapt to it. Dogs rely on their humans to take care of them, watch over them and guide them.

Today was frigid and my dogs needed me to refill their ice bowl with fresh (liquid) water and they needed me to cover them in a cute and fashionable outfit to keep them warm on their walk and they needed me to bring them in from the cold despite their desire to play outside. I am not saying business owners and managers are like dogs, but I am saying that we all need someone to watch over, to keep us out of the cold and guide us in the right direction from time to time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Close-up of sparkler on New Year's Eve

01022010

01022010 is a date palindrome. A palindrome is a word of phrase that reads the same forwards or backwards. There are only 335 days among 12 centuries with this type of date pattern. Thanks to photographer Mark Alberhasky http://www.imagema.com/blog for this interesting fact. I hope this bodes well for an amazing new year.

New Server

We have to repopulate our blog. We are working on it and it should have the prior posts back in the next couple of days. Thanks for visiting (please come back) and feel free to check out new updates on our main page at www.CKC411.com.