令和

Today is Emperor Naruhito’s coronation day. This year is the start of a new era – Reiwa.  Beautiful harmony seems to be the official explanation of the word Reiwa, 令和. Today is the Emperors coronation day and we are at home celebrating nine weeks of pregnancy. Reiwa. The customs of Japan – I find them fascinating. Even if there is a much bigger focus on work here than what I know of from Sweden, my impression is that there is also a bigger celebration of life, a more humbling way of interaction with what surrounds us. Except for the public transportation system. But all of that is for another time – today we are celebrating the Emperor. And nine weeks of pregnancy.

You will be born in 2020. Or Reiwa 2. A lot of 2s. And that is what my wife and me are to each other and you are to us – our second chance. We have been given a second chance of life and for us, even if we sometimes wish we had met when we were twenty instead, those twenty plus years I think also helps us appreciate and marvel at this new life, this our opportunity, as much as we do. That is what I want to think. What I want to believe. That is what my heart tells me. 

A second chance feels like the most beautiful gift we could have received – what I wish for you my baby, is a life filled with every second chance you might need. I will try my best to help you navigate life, to give you the tools to travel through time in a sense of beautiful harmony. But more important, I will try to help you discover that even if you feel lost, that your path suddenly is dark and you don’t really know which way is forward or backward, there is always a little sign somewhere, pointing you in the right direction. There is that second chance waiting for you if you just have the courage to let it come into your way. 

And if you ask me how I know, I will tell you that our family is my proof.