Welcome to the second issue of Friday Feels!

The landscapes of our beautiful island are slowly beginning to heal, but for many of us, the internal map of our lives has been permanently redrawn.

We asked our community a heart-centering question:

“How did Ditwah reshape what you hold important, compared to the life you knew before?”

The responses were a humbling mixture of heartbreak and profound clarity. While some lost the physical foundations of their lives in mere hours, a new kind of foundation is being built—one made of resilience, prepared wisdom, and a rational rethinking of what “success” truly looks like.

In this edition, we share the voices of those who looked into the surge of the flood and the cracks of the landslides, only to find a new perspective of the life they knew before.

The Day the World Fractured

Ditwah showed us how the world we know can fracture in seconds. In Kandy, Nilmini watched the walls of her home crack on a Tuesday morning, only to see half of it buried in a landslide by the afternoon. Her investment in crops, a fortune for their family, was buried instantly. In the lowlands, a survivor witnessed a terrifying 6-foot surge that rose in mere hours, leaving his family with nothing but the clothes on their backs. These moments of sudden loss have led many like Hasini to a profound realization:

“I realized how uncertain the things around us are… we tend to think material success is the ultimate goal, but Ditwah made us rethink the perceptions we hold onto.”

Beyond the physical destruction Ditwah caused, the storm left us with deep emotional scars. For some, the trauma is a recurring shadow. One woman shared the despair of losing everything for the second time in a decade. Her story reminds us that “recovery” is not just about rebuilding houses, but about finding the strength and courage to begin again when you feel “lost again, with nowhere to go”.

Wisdom Carried from the Mud

While the floodwaters have receded, it left us a community with a clarity we didn’t have before. As I read through the responses from our community, I myself reflected on my own journey. Before the storm, I often measured the quality of my life by deadlines met and achievement unlocked. Watching how quickly nature could reshape our world made me realize how fragile those marks of success truly are.

While the plans are necessary, they are secondary to the people standing right now in front of us. One member shared,

“I now value people over plans and presence over pressure”

Ditwah was a harsh teacher; it simply showed us tomorrow is never a guarantee. Perhaps the most beautiful shift is how the line between “my problem” and “our problem” has blurred. Our community now sees humanity through a different lens. One response noted:

“Watching strangers help each other changed how I see humanity. Kindness and solidarity matter more to me now than individual success”

This shift was not just about how we see others; it changed how we woke up every morning. We just stopped measuring our lives on what we lack and started noticing the small, quiet blessings we once ignored. As one said,

“I used to take simple comforts for granted; electricity, clean water, a quiet night’s sleep. After Ditwah, gratitude became a daily habit rather than an occasional thought”

This new profound realization for the present has slowed us down in a world that used to rush too fast. Most of us prioritized “speed”, doing more; doing faster, but Ditwah taught us that moving with intention is far more important.

For many of us, the world is fueled by the illusion that we were in control of our surroundings. Ditwah shattered that belief in seconds showing us that while we cannot control the weather, we can cultivate the strength to adapt. As one member shared,

“Before the storm, I believed control was everything. Ditwah taught me that resilience matters more. I now hold adaptability and inner strength far more important than rigid plans.”

This shift has taught us that resilience is not just about bouncing back, it is about knowing how to bend without breaking. This change in our hearts is perhaps the most enduring lesson of all. It reminds me of the famous words of Ernest Hemingway:

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”

Ditwah may have scarred our hillsides and swept through our valleys, leaving our beautiful island looking fractured and changed. But what is important is: the people who walk upon it.

While the storm destroyed the “where” of our lives, it could not touch the “who”. We are already rebuilding with a new understanding of what a foundation really is. We are filling those “broken places” with kindness and courage that no amount of water could wash away. We move forward now with a clearer lens, guided not just by the memory of what we lost, but by the profound clarity of what we found.

Penned By:

Rtr. Hafsa Rifai

Editorial Committee Member 25.26