Do it!

I can't stop thinking about the situation in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan.

Death toll estimated at 10,000.

The man whose ailing father was pulled from him as they clung to a tree during the storm surge.

Bodies that need to be buried soon to prevent disease outbreak.

Survivors wandering the streets, trying to find food, water, and medicines.

Every time there is a disaster on this scale, it feels a bit obscene to be going on with my regular life.  I felt the same way when hearing reports of the Japan tsunami in 2011 and the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and the Indonesia tsunami of 2004 (which, good heavens, I just looked it up and learned that the final count there was around 227,000 people dead).  How do you learn about ten thousand deaths on a Saturday and then bake a cake or play Uno or something on a Sunday?

But of course, you just do, because you have to keep living.  And then in the middle of changing my six-month-old's diaper, I think, "How many mothers right now don't have a single diaper for their babies?"  And while slicing an apple for my kids to snack on, I think, "How many mothers right now are literally watching their kids starve?"

When the Haiti earthquake struck, I kept thinking, "Oh, yes, I need to donate to the relief effort..."  and then I got distracted and I never did it.  So I'm donating today, and I hope you will too.  If you do so in the next two days, I'll enter you in a giveaway for a necklace.  It's beautiful and sparkly and you can keep it or give it to your mom for Christmas.

All you have to do is donate to the relief effort, and leave me a comment that says "done", and I'll pick a winner on Friday.  This is not an effort to promote a business or get blog traffic or anything like that; I just want to motivate you to donate right now.

Here is the Red Cross donation page.  I don't care what amount you give or what organization you give it to, as long as it goes to the Philippines relief effort.