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I’m well. Thank you for all the
concerned messages from Facebook,
Twitter and instagram that i’ve received.

At the time of the terrible disaster that
happened from 11th March 2011 onwards,
i was fortunately not in Japan,
but safe and sound in Singapore.

The incident has been weighing heavily
on my mind since that fateful Friday.

Moments before the disaster,
i had been worrying about a close friend
who lives in Tokyo, about the obstacles in her
life she was facing. I thought i’d give her a call.
Things are okay, don’t worry, i’d say.
Some comfort and encouragement.

As i was about to pick up the phone,
news of the tragedy reached my ears.
I dialed desperately but could not reach her.
We did not manage to connect all afternoon
but communicating with my circle of
friends i was very relieved to understand
that all of them were safe,
unharmed in any ways.

As the chaos was unfolding on the NHK news,
I couldn’t understand the tranquility
that was going on outside my window.
The sky was a still azure. People almost
blended into the lazy, warm afternoon.
The contrast baffled me.

Days later i managed to connect with my friend
on Skype phone and finally heard her voice.
We talked about various things, on the heaviest
note to the silliest kinds of jokes we liked to laugh over.
“I haven’t laughed like this in a while”, she said.
“I wanna see you again,” i said, as i thought of
mundane things like that disastrous day in autumn
where we went shopping and eating but ended up
on wrong train three times in a row. But i could no
longer think of it as disastrous, in comparision to
what had just transcended.

As i’m writing this, tweets from friends
tell me it is shaking in Tokyo.

Please keep praying.
Please keep donating.

I want to see a still pond reflection like this again someday.
May peace be restored.

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The LORD will surely comfort Zion
and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
he will make her deserts like Eden,
her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Isaiah 51:3

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