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Offered to the gods
This morning I sang an improvised dirge as we started to burn the broken beams of the house. I don’t think anyone heard it but me, but it was comforting to sing to the house. It was a sad moment for me, and I can only imagine how the Kawasakis felt. They were quiet. While
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Breaking it down
This morning, I woke up feeling insecure and my anxiety was turned up to 11. I saw on Facebook that they had been working at 555 yesterday, but I’d missed it. I asked about today’s plan and Fujii-san said he thought they’d be gathering again but he didn’t have any details. I am acutely aware
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Processing
Processing shock and loss takes many forms. For me, physicality is key. I need to be present in the charred space, exploring at the scene. I bear witness. I feel it intensely. And then I start to draw or write to release it. I went up to 555 this morning and climbed over into the
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Bad or Good?
A week ago in a meeting, I shared a story to illustrate that business setbacks or successes can be reframed with a single word. Alan Watts delivered the Story of the Chinese Farmer with his usual panache: And here I am, wrapping my head around the events of this weekend. It really feel like this
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Gone, gone, gone
At about 12:30 this afternoon, an announcement came over the loudspeaker: 大山地区。建物火災。平塚５５１。 (Oyama area house fire. Hiratsuka 551.) 551 is the old house next to our kominka – the one with the big gate. Oh! But the announcement was wrong. It wasn’t 551. It was 555. Our kominka, “Go-Go-Go” is gone, gone gone. To be
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Life is a kabure, old chum
Well, well, well. Nature attacked. I have kabure – contact dermatitis – on my face and neck. I’m not sure if it was urushi, the tree that makes Japanese lacquer and also the toxic urushiol that poisons ivy, oak and sumac, or if it was chadokuga, the tea tussock moth caterpillar with its poisonous hairs.
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Teaching Community Yoga, a book
I started teaching yoga when I moved out of Tokyo in 2015. At first, I held a weekly class at Satoyama Design Factory, and then a daily class at Monaka, and from the start of the pandemic, a daily morning class via Zoom. Today is Day 415 of the Zoom yoga class – I haven’t
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After a month without sugar…
Normally February is the shortest month, but this year I decided to stop eating sugar. That turned 28 days into a very long month, indeed. I did it, though. And now it’s over. I’ll celebrate with a cookie for breakfast! Honestly, though, I will proceed on a course of more mindful consumption of sugar. I
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The Inauthenticity of Social Media Marketing
I have absolutely no patience for doing social media marketing. Or marketing generally. I realise that to sell my work I have to do something to promote it, but I can’t even. Especially not “on the socials.” Social media marketing experts who I’ve tried to learn from online make me roll my eyes and grimace
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Three distinctive sounds, described
My friend, Laura, is doing a project for her Master’s program and put out a call for a variety of voices to talk about sounds. The questions she sent to us volunteers were so intriguing that I answered them, not only for her but for another short podcast episode. One of the sounds comes with
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