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Happy 2017
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25 Words
Half century joys: circus successes; drawing again; driver’s license; warm neighbors; loving husband. Sorrows: multiverse branched and Zoupi vanished; my heart broke; mould ruined everything. And all the 25 Word entries I’ve written since 2001: 2015 A new era began with Japanese eijuuken and freedom to do anything! We quit Tokyo for rural Chiba. Now
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Open 2017
My guiding theme for 2017 will be Open. Some years, choosing the theme word for the year involves a lot of thesaurus consulting, debating and mind-changing. But this year it came to me in a flash and I haven’t considered anything else. Open is just right: honest, undecided, unobstructed, obvious, objective. I may find myself
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Evolution of Christmas Spirit
This year end has been hectic and stressful with driving school, health issues, a broken fridge, blah, blah, blah. I was not feeling the usual “I hate Christmas’ mood this year as much as I was completely indifferent and almost ignorant of the holiday coming up. Boxes arrived from family overseas. I stacked them up.
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Omens, Talismans, and Offerings
I am solidly superstitious, though usually pretty quiet about it. Omens are things of legend and talismans are for the weak and foolish. Despite that, I’ve always had a feeling that there are objects and actions that will improve any situation. Yesterday, when I went to the Driving License Center to take my final exam,
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On the Devastating Loss of a Stuffed Friend
I feel slightly sheepish writing this. The grief I feel over losing my friend, Zoupi, pales in comparison to the death of a human friend or a living pet. It seems unfair to even compare them at all. But People and pets die and we sort of accept that is going to happen some day
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8 Streetlights, 12 Spiderwebs
I love walking in the night. Tokyo made me forget the beauty of darkness, but the countryside has awakened my enjoyment of evening calmness. It isn’t pitch black, even on a cloudy, new moon night, but photos don’t capture the dull glow of sky, the faint reflections in the rice fields, or the shy blinking
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Changes of Season
Before we left Tokyo seven months ago, I had a concern about the seasons, of all things. After almost 18 years in the city, I was tuned to the nature there and the procession of plants and weather created a visceral annual timeline for me. If I moved somewhere else, I’d lose my sense of
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Practice makes perfect, if you do it…
Today, thanks to a friend’s share on Facebook, I read a great article on practice and how simply practicing isn’t enough to achieve mastery. I recommend that you read it here: Not All Practice Makes Perfect by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool. I found the article to be simultaneously encouraging and discouraging. Their main take
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A new age demographic
I feel I ought to have something impressive or profound to say about becoming 50. However, no wisdom has settled down like a crown upon my head. I have not grown eyes at the back of my head or turned into Janus overnight. I like fifty so far. It’s a half century! I’ve looked forward to
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