Taken from The Press, Christchurch's largest newspaper

While the Canterbury and Christchurch quakes have robbed the region of many things, some of our citizens are grateful for small things they have gained from the experience.

Some of the added benefits of our new normality have been expressed in online forums. Here is a small selection of things people have gained:

• a new tolerance for people
• a renewed faith in humanity
• a rekindled love for New Zealand
• a strengthened sense of community and friendship with neighbours
• a magnified sense that family is more important than anything else
• an awareness that we have to make the most of every day
• patience
• an excuse not to wash the car (water shortage)
• a kick-start to improve health and wellbeing
• a renewed, deep respect for those who worked day and night to help us all - the nurses, doctors, farmers, drain workers, shop workers, army, police, civil defense, mums, dads, rescue teams and rescue dogs, electricity and telephone workers.

At 12:51pm on Feb. 22nd , 5 km below the unsuspecting city of Christchurch, the massive tectonic plates that form the cooling crust of the earth split and ruptured, sending the energy of fifty atomic bombs hurtling through the mantle of the earth, upward into the landscape and down into the swirling core of the planet. In less than half a minute, the massive release of energy devastated the Christchurch city centre, tore down buildings , destroyed the power grid and the water reservoirs, turned suburbs into swamps and forever changed countless lives.

Amid the devastation though and the inevitable tragedies of perished lives and wrenching loss , we have seen once again the great resolve and steadfastness of the human spirit rise up in response, tales of courage and selflessness, the great love of people for people, the deep kinship of our race. "It's absolutely bloody marvellous" said reporter John Campbell as he watched bystanders risking their own lives to pull an injured woman out of a collapsing building .