Japan: One Year Later

The artist of this stunning photo is a South African cinematographer named Zeno Peterson. Her wonderful photo was photo of the day yesterday at Webstagram.


Ella, at Real Toads, has issued a photo challenge, to select a photo from   those she posted on the Toads site, or other winning photos here, and write to the one we pick.The above photo was photo of the day yesterday.  As the Japan tsunami hit me hard, this photo really spoke to me about the resilience of the Japanese people,  with its inspirational and hopeful message of reconstruction and recovery.


Reuters says 300,000 are still homeless and 3300 unaccounted for. The photo below is what the landscape looked like last year, but, while there is still much to do,  much rebuilding has been done. The Japanese people are well accustomed to dealing with the aftermath of devastation, one piece of wood, and one small cleared space at a time.

Atop the wreckage, 

a symbol of hope,

of strength,

of determination to overcome,

waves in the aftermath

of destruction:

proudly, stating:

we shall endure.

Each stick of wood,

each pile of rubble,

slowly is moved from the pile

and cleared away.

On the smoothed, reclaimed surface,

she sits, red balloons

cheerful and hopeful

testaments

to all that has been done,

all there is

yet to do.

Below, the ground 

re-emerges,

the buildings are 

patched and healed,

hearts lifting

with the stoic 

and over-arching spirit

of a people:

we shall overcome.