The world is always looking out for us. I find it hard to
believe in circumstance when I have narrowly missed life-threatening natural
disasters at least four times.
Had I not traveled to Nepal in November and December 2014,
perhaps I would have been there in April 2015 when three record-setting
earthquakes shattered the country’s resources and killed over 4,000 people. Had
I chosen to climb Mount Kinabalu, as planned, rather than travel to Brunei and
fly to the Philippines, then perhaps there would have been 17, instead of 16,
trekkers killed on the top of the summit during the earthquake that struck at
the beginning of June. If I hadn’t been robbed in the Philippines, maybe I
would have continued to camp on beaches in the Philippines and Indonesia, and
maybe something much more traumatizing would have happened to me. After that
experience, and the beginning of the rainy season, I booked my flight out of
the Philippines early, and maybe, just maybe that would have put me on the
wrong boat that day in June when cyclones hit and 32 people drowned. After all,
I was on the same sea, traveling not too far away. If I stayed in Indonesia I
would be coping through the massive forest fires that are currently ravishing the
nation - particularly in Kalamatan – where seasonal field burning has become the
latest nightmare.
I seem to float along like a feather carried by the wind. Although
I don’t know where I am going, the wind does. It takes me high above all of the
coral reefs, over the volcanoes, through the fiords, and away I go. Carelessly
free and floating on the back of this invisible force that seems to hold all
harm at bay.
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