With the rest of the world, I was shocked to hear of the massive earthquake in Japan, and the resulting and devastating tsunami. The scenes I watched that night were surreal. I felt a great sadness (and even writing this now brings tears to my eyes) as yet again a huge tragedy has rocked the people and the places I know, and this seems to have a direct line to the grief I still experience re my leukaemia. Once this connection is locked in, it's hard to move away from.
Once again, I scored a small victory for myself in recent days when a letter from my haematologist said that my blood counts were stable for the time being and I could take leave of my weekly blood tests for a month. At the same time as celebrating this, I was thinking of all those in Japan (and in Christchurch), who are beginning their own journeys of loss and recovery, and my heart goes out to them.
That night was also a scary one for me as news reports came through of a possible tsunami hitting New Zealand shores: I live about a 10 minute walk from Papamoa Beach. I'm extremely grateful that we were spared any further devastation in the form of Mother Nature; thankful that the only mess to clean up the next morning was from the usual Friday night party-goers:
viewing
last night's destruction
not a tsunami
but from the waves
of drunken teenagers
Sending out much love to Japan: a place where I lived and worked for six months, a place that has captured my love of words in it's many forms of poetry. These tears are for you. Kia kaha. Xx
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