I felt alive when the lights came on

I would like to express my deepest sympathies to everyone affected by the disaster in Kumamoto.

Learning about the earthquake in Kumamoto reminded me of the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
I was living in Sendai back then.

I was living in Sendai back then.

The vertical shaking that nearly flipped everything over,
tumbling down the stairs,
and the time I couldn't get in touch with my family—
I still cannot forget any of it.

However, what I remembered this time
was not just the earthquake itself.

It was about life
after the electricity, water, and gas were cut off.

Without electricity,
the night becomes truly dark.

Flipping a switch makes the room bright.

Turning a faucet makes water come out.

Until that day,
I had lived my life
taking such things for granted.

But,
from that moment on,
that normalcy vanished in an instant.

We spent our nights by the light of a single candle,
and shared whatever food we had among the family.

As we cleaned up the house little by little,
I think we were only thinking about how to get through each day.

How long
would this life continue?

Would normal days
ever really return?

Every time I thought about the future,
only anxiety would well up inside me.

But.
It was about a week later, I think.
The electricity came back on.

Suddenly,
the lights in the house turned on.

Of course,
that didn't mean everything
was back to normal.

The water and gas
still weren't working yet.

Even so,
because the room became bright,

I felt as if our life had returned.

A while after that,
though it took quite some time,
the water and gas were reconnected too.

Every time one thing came back,
the things we could do increased,
and I remember being so happy I could cry.

Perhaps "daily life"
is not something that returns all at once one day.

It might be that by having small "usual things"
come back one by one,

little by little,
little by little,
it regains its shape.

I believe there are many people right now
spending time in uncertainty.

Not knowing how long it will last.
Not knowing if things will ever return to normal.

At times like that,
it is difficult to be positive.

In such times,
I don't think you need to force yourself to be cheerful.

I think there are days
when you end up doing nothing at all.

Back then, I too
didn't know anything about what the future held,
and I couldn't even smile.

But as I lived through each day,
the electricity returned, the water returned,
and our own lives slowly returned as well.

It may not be right away.
It may not take the same form.

Even so,
the small things we take for granted
for the day they return one by one,
I quietly wish from Sendai.