(ES from Fukushima/Female/50s/Hairdresser)
Our house was flooded due to Typhoon 19 this year. The water reached a level of up to 2 meters, and the beauty salon I work on the 1st floor was all submerged.
Cleaning up the flooded house was hard work, but children and friends came right away to help us. I then, realized how nice and warm people could be, which made me wonder if I could do the same if this would have happened to other people around me. I started to reflect on myself that I used to think they are not my concern, I probably could not give compassion to others like they did.
Through this experience, I thought to myself, why not start building the relationships with people around me with more compassion. I especially focused on sympathizing with the feelings of others. Then, people started to express warm words of compassion to me, such as “the situation must have been harder.”
Even people who I used to only have small talks have gotten closer more than ever before. I have nothing but gratitude, because there were many happy things that happened, such as the contractor tried their best to quickly repair the damage to re-open the salon, and regular customers visited to cheer me up and so on.
The children who live away helped us any way they can, and we now have more family conversations. Although the house was flooded, a family bond was tightened by saying “Let’s take good care of the house where we were born and raised.”
I am truly inspired by how everything seemed to change depending on how I perceive life.
I would like to do my best to deepen the relationships and ties with every encounter in my life.