What to do with the Overwhelming?

So many immense difficulties in the form of natural disasters have come about in the past few months. Widespread areas of our small planet have been shaken, inundated, blown away or poisoned over a very short period of time.
One disaster has been followed by another with such speed we have had little or no time to catch a breath.

Floods in Brisbane and then cyclone Yasi in Queensland, floods in Victoria, the earthquake in Christchurch New Zealand, were quickly eclipsed by the huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear radiation leak in the north of Japan.
Suffering has been on such an enormous scale it is difficult to comprehend , let alone keep the heart wide open to it all.

It hasn't stopped.
It never stops.
War, earthquakes,fire, flood, radiation leaks, accidents, cruelty, old age, sickness and death.
Getting overwhelmed is understandable, but not of much use.

Come back to the present moment.
Keeping a calm and stable mind, and with mindfulness, turn and help the person next to you.
Helping someone, even in a small way, is a great antidote to the pain of being overwhelmed.

The Buddha taught about suffering and the end to suffering.
'The Four Noble Truths' and 'The Noble Eightfold Path', show the way to do this.

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/footsteps.htm