A Permanent Tear featured in Art 4 Japan on 15 April 2011

A Permanent Tear featured in Painters Universe on 7 April 2011

A Permanent Tear was created 6 April 2011 from watercolour, acrylic, mixed media and was inspired by my writing A Permanent Tear written 19 March 2011

Art for Japan.

A Permanent Tear by Anthea Slade

A Permanent Tear

Whack!
With little warning it came.
A violent quake at sea that created a Tsunami in Japan beyond comprehension.
A tragedy that renders even the most erudite inarticulate.
Bringing devastation that crumples our language
as it becomes inadequate to express our grief.

Trauma after trauma after trauma ad infinitum has rendered me for a time speechless. Snowballing of trauma in quick succession is the making of a post traumatic stress disorder. This is the opening chapters of 2011. Violent nature lashes out at sea and land leaving human and animal life more than reeling. We are stunned and immobilised in its wake. Flooding of large portions of Queensland’s state, cyclones that bash coastal towns, flash flooding in Melbourne city and Victoria, NSW, quakes in Christchurch that flatten buildings and crumple churches and now the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan so massive that it decimates whole villages and leaks nuclear plants and it is only March 19!

Unease and terror seeps disharmony deep into our bones as we try to rationalise and intellectualise finding ways to justify these occurrences. Imagining ways to save us from all this. Words and hypothesising is not enough. Practical strategy and pooling of the experts in their fields from all nations to find rapid solutions that can aid and support the recovery of Japan and our world is more then needed.

A feeling of helplessness with a desperate fear that these things are not over, creates a crippling feeling that is hard to shake. Terror of instant media messages with journalist and media frozen in their own trauma trying to report the magnitude of these events, often fall short. Leaving mere humans seeking a way to find a new language, a new way of coping as we sit alone in our bubbles trying to find solace and peace with a crying heart that never ceases.

With no emotional down time to recover from one disaster to the next we are left with an open gaping wound that is unable to heal. Yet not to see, not to face and to speak of it is not the answer. Denial has never brought recovery of deep wounding. However watching the media interpretation of every nuance is not the answer either, because with every image there is a biased perspective and sensationalisation that needs to be interpreted with awareness. Image upon raw image is hard for the human mind to absorb leaving our sensitivity shattered trying to cope with the assault that has an abusive unrelenting sting capable of shutting us down into a robotic stupor. To leave our pain unattended could possibly leave us thwarted for years in our own personal rabbit hole. To stay informed but to remain intact is a subtle and ever delicate sea saw in our emotional health.

The eyes and hearts of the world are focused on Japan and its beautiful people. Our human hearts in unison beat with empathy for the loss and suffering of this part of our world. With great compassion there is an urgent longing for the suffering to stop and the threats to cease so that recovery and healing can begin.

Japan is experiencing the immediate raw pain of these devastating events but we all weep with empathy for our sisters and brothers in Japan. We are one world inextricably linked by our vulnerability, bound by our humanity. With these events that disrupt our sensibility and become a wake up call for all. Leaving us longing for a new language, a new way of thinking, a new way of being that can provide us a vehicle that can navigate us through this new paradigm. The quickening has just quickened to a frightening pace as we shift our reflections moving us so far beyond the post.

Reality does bite. Reality does demand alchemy of heart and spirit that can propel us into a new phase, a new chapter that can heal and protect our humanity.

There is a permanent tear in my eye that will not leave.

© Anthea Slade 2011