Tweets From Japan: Shining Hope Into The Darkness

It seems like I’ve started dozens of articles with this same sentence: I love Twitter. However, each day I find more reasons why Twitter is such a fabulous place to hang out. Whenever there are tragedies happening around the world, I can always find some sort of peace and comfort on Twitter. Have you had the same experience too? Maybe I just follow the best 36,000 people on the site. After all, your experiences on Twitter are directly related to the people you follow, or don’t follow.

The earthquake in Japan is a good example. I can’t even wrap my brain around it all. Just thinking about it for more than a few seconds makes me cry, and I can feel my heart hurt. Seeing all the pictures circulating on Twitter of all the people, especially the children, that have survived but are separated from their families is profoundly sad. It’s really unbearable to imagine what that must be like. I pray for them all every day.

However, once again, thanks to Twitter, some people have found a way to cut through all the sadness and bring a small ray of sunshine into the darkness. I can’t give you super detailed information about this because a lot of the information is in Japanese; however, I can tell you that 60 volunteers from around the world are working feverishly to compile a master list of encouraging tweets that are coming straight out of Japan. They are translating these tweets into 12 languages so people all over Twitter can be touched and encouraged by their stories and their experiences.

If you ever doubted the emotions and strength of character that can be conveyed in 140 characters, this will change your mind. These are tweets of courage, strength, love and hope. These are tweets coming directly from people that are experiencing the crisis first hand. I get all choked up when I read them. If you would like to check out these tweets for yourself, get your tissue and click on the link below. #prayforjapan