Heartless Mother Nature

This week's Gallery is Nature

I have a thousand pictures of the beautiful green, brown and golden landscape where I live. But it is easy to forget when we live in such gentle (by comparison) climate that nature can be harsh.

The Pinnacles in Western Australia.

A bizarre place, desert in the bush with odd rocks just standing there.  You wouldn't want to be stuck out here alone.

It's a long way from anywhere and very very hot.

This was a weather 'front' that moved across my village. It was a vertical wall of cloud.

It was heavy, dark and sucked all the goodness out of the air. It moved silently and menacingly.

It was a dreadful wall of storm, wind and rain.

But I can't begin to contemplate the harshness of the storm that passed over the Philippines.

This isn't the recent typhoon, this is after Ketsana in 2009.

We have no control over where we were born.  Nor do we have any control over how difficult or easy our relationship with nature during our lifetime will be as a result of where we are born.

It isn't fair that today I stood and look over a soft green landscape of rolling hills, enhanced by a beautiful crisp light, a gentle breeze, a low flying heron following the waters edge, a welcome sight on an idyllic run. Whilst 7000 miles away nature has again destroyed peoples lives, killed so many, left a shell of what was a normal town.  One day they got up, had breakfast, waved the children off to school.  The next they are fighting to find food and water to survive.

How would you want the world to help if it happened to your community today?