Brownian Motion

Fellow citizens!

The earthquake of April 5th, 2024 was the greatest to hit New Jersey in two hundred fifty years. Early in the morning (for me), and without warning, it struck. The Earth’s crust gave way and rattled us. Briefly, for about thirty seconds.

We have all been affected by this terrible event―its effects have left us shaken. For myself, this hit particularly close to home. I lost sight of my loved ones for an entire two minutes in my blind panic to evacuate from my house. The shuddering of the Earth knocked my morning coffee onto the ground. When I went outside, I was met with a landscape of devastation: The quake had snapped a twig straight off of a tree in the front yard, and my three lawn chairs, which had stood so proudly for a decade, had fallen over.

It is a dark time as I say these words―in fact, it is night. It is easy to feel overwhelmed. Despaired. Anguished, like my caffeine-deprived self after the earthquake claimed my morning coffee as its victim. But hope is not yet gone. It is times like these―where all seems to be shattered―that the true togetherness of a community shines through.

We will mourn those we have lost, and find them down the street having run in the opposite direction. We will pay respects to the fallen twig on the ground. We will pray that an event of this magnitude never strikes our homes again, which will probably be the case because we do not live on an active fault line.

And then we will look to the future. We will clean the debris of spilled coffee from the floors. We will right the three overturned lawn chairs.

We will not let the shivering of the Earth deter us from our suburban home.
We will rebuild.
We will prevail!