CuppaGemma

The breaking news has passed. The streaming updates have been taken down. We have seen the tsunami footage enough.

But there are hundreds of thousands of people who are homeless, living in temporary shelters. Families are broken because not everyone lived. Bodies are still being found, thousands remain missing. Radiation concerns remain.

For people in Japan it is not yesterday’s news story. It remains a very current mark on their days. It will continue to be, because it takes a little while to rebuild a life, a home and adjust to changes in family.

That’s not really a story that gets covered. The urgency and graphic images of destruction- interesting and read. The hopeful story of a person found days later, or of pets reunited- nice and also worth a read.

The day in day out matter of cleaning up and rebuilding and cleaning up and rebuilding and how long it takes till enough is done to deeply rest- perhaps not so compelling. We want the story to cut to montages and music. We prefer the nodes the to actually travel the steps in each arc.

Commonness can be compelling. So a small group of people come and help each other, and keep helping each other. And there is a silent compassion because of the family that was lost. Who stands today as an elder with no children? Or a child with no parents? Or a husband without his wife? And they keep at it, because it is necessary for life to go on.

The blossoms remind us of that. Life goes forward, it does not hang in seasons of the past.

I hope they remind us too, that life is precious and fleeting. So we ought to remember to look into each other’s eyes.