Bush Warbler--a common springtime bird in Japan. Photo borrowed from this website.
I woke up this morning to snow falling gently and robins singing. I ate warm buttery raisin toast and sipped hot tea. I helped E with math and read a paper that Z wrote about the invention of the telephone. I filled the bird feeders, worked on L's yellow sweater, folded laundry, went grocery shopping, talked to a friend on the phone...
And, all day I thought about Saty, Nori, Tatsu, and Yasuyo, our friends in Japan. I thought about what their day must be like: waking to a lack of water and no electicity, getting dressed and eating breakfast together as if it were a normal day, when tens of thousands of people are dead and missing; of having your heart pound in panic each time your mind wanders back to the moments when the earth shook violently; feeling amazed when you see a bird singing on a branch outside in the sunlight; and wishing that it would all just go back to the way it was before the entire country moved eight feet and the Earth shifted on its axis.
I can't get my head around it.