Thoughts about the Japanese Tsunami

It's been a long time since I blogged. It feels like an eternity. Sometimes, I am so tired, that I do not even turn on my computer. No actually, I am not turning it on for the sake of my health. It is said that using the computer at night will make one too awake to want to go to sleep.

Yes, I have been suffering form insomnia, a little. Not sure whether it is due to the usage of the computer or because of other issues.

The reason why I am blogging now is because something big has stirred up a lot of emotions inside me. I was cooped up in the office all day and had no idea what was going on in the outside world. When taking the train back home, it has now become my habit to whip out my phone and go to facebook to check for updates from friends (another reason why I do not use the computer so much).

It was only then that I realised that there has been an earthquake and tsunami in Japan. News really spread quickly and we do not ONLY rely on tradition media such as the television or the radio to receive information anymore.

At first I was quite nonchalant about it all, thinking that it was all happening in a land faraway from here. But reading the news and receiving messages from friends commenting on the magnitude of the whole incident suddenly made me think that one day, in the not so faraway future, this could actually be happening to us, an island country that is but a dot in the map of the world.

Then I thought about my friend all the way in Europe and about her story on her relative that was connected to the tsunami of the recent years that passed. I suddenly had so much emotions welling up in my chest that I immediately sent a message to say "hello".

Perhaps it could also have been the message that was sent out by L'oreal Paris Singapore on facebook to ask everyone to pray in their own way for the people of Japan. That really touched me as well. At that point of time, after 12 midnight, laying on my bed, I just felt that no matter what hardships and difficulties that I was going through, it all seem to minute to be important. It was less important than the warmth and love I felt from family and friends; less important than the fact that today, I am still alive, while someone else's life had been swept away, perhaps even without them knowing that it would be their last.

No, I have never really felt like this before. Or perhaps, I refused to be too 'involved' when such natural disasters happened. Somehow though, this time it was a little different. Maybe because it felt so real as everyone was talking about it over facebook.

I will keep praying for those who are in Japan now. Just like how I know my proper fire evacuation procedures, the Japanese are well prepared from  their years of practice with their own emergency evacuation exercises. They will find a good way out of this situation right now.