A new year

A new year, a new beginning,
This is at least how I feel
These new months of january
Are!

I wish you all a beautiful
New beginning:
The continuity of all the good you've had,
The renewal of all that needs to be.

Checking my few favourite blogs, I see
Bloggers picking their favourite word.
I have picked mine: outside!

I've read an enlightening article recently:
OK I knew I was rather an introvert, but well,
It all confirmed it, and even more!
I've been thinking that an introvert
Might need to focus more on things outside of
Himself/herself. I don't know if you'll agree,
But I feel it is healthy to help our weakest
Qualities bloom, so as to achieve this gentle,
Delicate balance. It also happens that
I've decided I'd take my family out more
This year: little outings, little trips,
Nights out, days out, a concert here,
A play there, a movie, a lunch out...

I believe I need a breather this year, my family does too.
We've had lots of good in 2014, we've had losses too.
I believe I need and want to step out of my comfort zone
A little more often. I want the air, the fun, the open space,
The horizon, the happy sounds of happy crowds.

Here's to being outside/stepping outside/going outside more.
Wishing you a year full of beautiful outings, large and small!

Sharing Beauty and Peace

To dear Val and my dear readers,
I apologize you for my long, long absence from this blog and also I would like to express my gratitude to Val for allowing me to keep writing my part here.  As Val mentioned in her post, I created another blog in Japanese in April, although I have not been able to update it yet, due to a family problem.  The main reason I started the Japanese blog is to share the concept of "Beautify and Pacify", FACE TO FACE.

Sharing positive thoughts and viewpoints is valuable, especially in this confusing world.
Having read all of Val's recent posts, I really reaffirm my connections with her.  I found myself nodding my head as I read each post.  Beauty and Peace ARE always here, in an every single thing we do in our everyday life, and it depends on ourselves whether if we find them and enjoy them or not.  I really feel them through taking care of my mother who has been in the hospital.
As Val and Nancy say, every choice we make IS the key to make our world beautiful and peaceful.
I hope to continue to move on to our/my purpose, both on this blog and on my Japanese blog.

*****

Lastly, I would like to share some photos with you from an event called Children's Day (or sometimes Boy's Festival) in Japan, which is held on May 5th.  It was for celebrating boys but now it has become a day to celebrate children in general.  The event has already passed and though my photos are not timely, I did tell you I would talk about it just before I took my long absense, so I'm glad to be able to share these photos here.

On Children's Day, dolls for boys (patterns after warriors and heroes) are set up (abpve photo).
Also, if you come to Japan in May, you will see carp streamers  everywhere, flying in the blue sky.  Carp have the strength to swim up waterfalls. So, from ancient times, parents have prayed for the success of their children in life.  Traditionally, the event was for boys, but towards girls or boys, the thoughts of moms and dads have been the same: Happiness, good health and success... They all come from their deep LOVE!!!

Sachi

Sharing

We came into this world to experience things, to grow! We can grow by interdependence in all things.

Here, I would like to share this video with you, with which I was very much impressed. In this video, she says, "Two of the most valuable things we have are time and the relationships with other people".  

Subconsciously, we want to get other people to listen to us; we want to know we are not alone; once we know that we are not alone, our heart will open wide and we will be able to send our love to others. This sharing board has proved that, I suppose. 

Following is an experience I had with my neighbors last Sunday. It snowed here (one of Tokyo metropolitan regions) on Saturday, all day long until mid-night; we had about 30cm of snow. When it snows this much (even if it is 10cm or less), we have problems in walking, transortation aspects, etc., as we are not familiar with snow.

So next morning(on Sunday), some neighbors gathered and started snow shoveling in front of the houses to avoid ice forming and to prevent slipping and falling. They were shoveling out NOT ONLY in front of THEIR OWN houses, BUT OTHERS. I also participated with them.
I heard one of them say that he wanted to do this shoveling, because he and his family owea lot to the neighbors everyday. His words made me feel warm.

Yes, we are not living alone. We owe a lot to other people in many ways.
Maybe this sense of gratitude creates a beautiful tie between people, and it brings happiness and peace to people and then to the community.

Looking at this from the global perspective(well...universal level), there is nothing we possess in this universe but we share the same boat called Spaceship Earth. So living with this sense of sharing with gratitude will bring our world peace, I think.  When I think of all this, I can't help wishing that people would stop fighting and start sharing this world peacefully.

May 2014 be filled with love and peace!

The year 2014 began in a relaxing mood with fresh air and warm sunshine. I really thank God for having been able to celebrate the new year peacefully.

During the holiday, I went to see the movie "Gravity" with my husband this year. The image of the earth was beautiful. There was a scene in which the heroin drifts in the space alone, and when she tries to get in touch she hears people's voices and a dog barking from the earth (which makes her relax). She asked to have some lovely words as a lullaby. I would feel the same, if I were alone in the space, or say, if I were on my deathbed. The scene made me want to send space some positive energy such as beautiful warm words filled with love or laughing voices, not negative enerygy like angery voice!  

Also the next day, we visited Izu Shimoda. The sea quietly reflected the warm sunshine. 

The sea and the sun reminded me of the movie's image of the earth in space. 

If you could see the world from the universe's eye, you would feel that fighting between nations is absurd; fighting between each people is meaningless.  

The world will become as what you want to see and what you want to wish. We have responsibility to make the world better. So lets desire the world to be filled with love and peace.. 

I wish you all a wonderful 2014; may it be filled with love, light, peace, good health and happiness:)

In Beauty May I Walk

I've been feeling the true importance of centering meditation.

I feel as though it helps my balance; 

in order to see things from a neutral position 

or in order to achieve harmony

with people, nature, work, and everything around me.

*

Several years ago, I had a chance to learn Navojo prayer,

In Beauty May I Walk, which touched my heart.

When I do centering meditation, 

my heart seems to reach a state that is something like this prayer.

Let me share that Navojo prayer with you.

"In beauty may I walk

All day long may I walk

Through the returning seasons may I walk

Beautifullly will I possess again

Beautifully birds, 

Beautifully joyful birds

On the trail marked with pollen may I walk

With grashoppers about my feet may I walk

With dew about my feet may I walk

With beauty may I walk

With beauty before me may I walk

With beauty behind me may I walk

With beauty all around me may I walk

In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk

In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk

It is finished in beauty.

It is finished in beauty."

It would be wonderful if each one of us walk in beauty,

then beauty and harmony would be brought to our world.

May all of you walk in beauty:)

Making a dried flower wreath

I posted this in my other blog steps to the sky, but I would like to share this here too.

I hope you can enjoy her beautiful photos. Photos are universal language, aren't they?:) 

I have often visited the blog "Nature's 工房 -晶- " since I had happened to find it.

That photos are all beautiful and the wreaths she makes are full of purity, 

tenderness and warmth goes without saying of course,

however, what caught me the most is the owner's strong sense of love for nature

and her warm thoughts of protecting the earth.

Besides, the fact that her favorites (Ms.Venesia and Ms. Rachel Carlson)

are the same as mine is one of the reasons that I have visited her occasionally.

Last Saturday, I participated in her work-shop at Cafe Slow Gallery, 

and learned how to make a dried flower wreath.

I wanted express my love of nature, with a sense of protecting our earth like her,

but oh my! I failed to make a wreath like hers with a sense of clarity.

I'll challenge myself again, maybe using the flowers and leaves from my tiny garden.

Apart from the disappointing result, it was really nice to finally meet her face to face.

In the event space at Cafe Slow, I looked at an exhibition 

through which some young art students expressed their feelings 

after visiting Fukushima following the disaster March.11, 2011.

 I chatted with two of the exhibitors for a while.

One of them told me that he felt some distance among people 

who live far away from Fukushima;

he sensed a different feeling between the people 

who live far away from Fukushima and the people who live in Fukushima.

In his work he expressed the difference by making two life-sized boys;

 one of them has a placard written "No"(to nuclear energy) and the other has "Yes".

Oh, I should have taken some pictures of their works.I'm sorry for the lack of the pictures.

Somehow, it was so encouraging to me to know there are young people

who have visited the field and caught a sense of the need 

to express their feelings for the sake of a better future. 

After all it's each of them and each of us who possess the ability

to change our world into a beautiful and peaceful place.

Zen temple

I think that Val's idea of sharing beauty and peace in this way is great!

So I'm happy to share my peace with you today.

This is one of Zen temples.  I visited it at the end of last month.

There weren't so many people there at that time and I could enjoy the serenity with the sounds of water flowing.  I heard that the water there is taken from melting snow in the mountains surrounding the temple, and it takes so many years to reach there.  Don't you think it's amazing?

Calming my mind there, I thought :  Mu in the Zen world is described as "nothingness" or "emptiness".  But I think that being the state of Mu is getting to the state of mind of "infinity" or "abundance", kind of  embracing or full of acceptance.  It might be said that real love is that state.

It would have been better if I could share the water sounds without music, but instead I used the music on which I have been hooked these days.  The music is a cover version of classic music (Rakhmaninov Symphony No.2 ) by Japanese instruments (Shamisen and Shakuhachi) players, Hide-Hide.

Sharing the beauty

So I've been thinking we could go a step further together, and share the beauty. All the beauties that surround us: the beautiful skyscraper in front of your office, kids laughing at a party, a music playing on the car radio, a long line of birds in the sky, a pot softly simmering on your stove, a page of your favourite magazine, a word said in a funny way by your work mate...What is your beauty today? What is making your heart skip a beat? What is sending warm fuzzy feelings of comfort to your mind and body? What is bringing a smile to your lips?

And more importantly: how about sharing it?

How about using this modest cozy place to rejoice in the beauties we can share?
It always makes us feel better, to see the beauty, and to share.
We all crave for it, I see that. Beauty, peace, connections. We never get enough, do we?

I'll make the first step, of course: in the small video below, I've included two of my favourite spots. The first one is the view I get to see every morning, the second one is a place I often go to with my kids. It is almost a draft, the videos are a little bit shaky (hastily taken with my smartphone). But it doesn't really matter.

What matters is: I love those views, the peace and joy they bring me...I'd like to share them with you.

And I'd love to get to see more joy, peace and comfort, in whatever pictures, videos, poems you'd be willing to link up or post in the comments below.

And I'd love to make a gallery here, of the beauties you'd like to share...like a peace bank we could visit any time we need a little credit :)

Make it cool!

I really agree with making it as simple as Val says.

Year by year, too many things have gathered in rooms. Too many thoughts have been accumulated in minds. Most of them are not indispensable. They just end up sufforcating us. A simpler life gives us space in which a nice breeze can go through.

It's the height of summer right now. You know, Japanese summer is incredibly hot and humid. So we need to contrive some ways to live cool and comfortably to survive the summer. Making the room simple is surely one of them!  Sitting in a simple, clean room and setting a wind chime at the window, it can make you feel a bit cooler. The room full of things won't be very successful.

Space is a crucial point to survive the terrible summer.

Come to think of it, cutting thick plants before the midsummer is my every year task.  After cutting the plants, I plant some blue-colored flowers and cool looking foliage.  Visually, it helps to feel cool.

(By the way, morning glory, bell-shaped flowers, is very popular in Japan as summer flowers.  They open their flowers in the morning and give us their lovely refreshing smiles. We call it Asagao and write in Kanji as "morning face")

Shaping our daily lives comfortably is associated with our blog's main idea, right?

There are many more ways to tell you, but  it would become very long, so I will write them another time.

I hope you all enjoy your summer!

Butterfly

Whenever I see butterflies, I remember all the butterfulies 

that spent their whole lives in my tiny garden 

until they fluttered away in to the blue sky.

They had a really big appetite during their caterpillar stage

and it seemed to me that they looked so hard to find places to spend their pupa stage.

One day after a long, long pupa stage, 

they emerged as beautiful butterflies and fluttered away, up into the blue sky.

It was an absolutely amazing scene.

Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillars　

Swallowtail Butterfly 

Watching and praying

(These are my posts in which I wrote about them.)

Looking at butterflies fluttering in the air,

resting for a moment on flowers,

or consuming nectar from flowers,

I feel a warm, loving affection.

We experience good and bad in our lives, 

and sometimes, it feels both physically and spiritually too tough.

However, one day we come through the hardest times

and eventually, catch the sunshine like those butterflies.

Everything goes round and round.  

We are all connected to each other.

Everything is ONE.

So there is nothing to worry about.

Speaking to flowers

The same flowers as last year are blooming 

at the same place in my tiny garden.

I thought they had died.

So I was delighted when I saw them open their petals and blossom.

It was invisible, but surely there was "life" under the ground.

The flowers are living in "this moment" brightly 

in the warm sunshine,

 swaying in the soft breeze.

*

I had a chance to read an article by the tree doctor, Konami Tsukamoto,

with which I was greatly impressed.

She has poured her love out towards trees and flowers.

She says in the article that she once felt that a tree needing care said to her that

 it didn't want any medical treatment, but wanted to be a part of a natural cycle.

Then she thought it was arrogance to cure the tree.

After that she sincerely went to the tree (dozens of times)

and listened humbly to what she could do for it.

Now the tree bears an abundance of flowers every year in Ashikaga Flower Park.

This Wisteria photo is from Ashikaga Flower Park in Japan. 

 You can read Wisteria Story and see more photos here.

*

 Opening our minds and pouring love, 

 humbly facing it and speaking to it.

It may require a lot of efforts and pain,

but it also teaches us a lot of things

Eventually we recieve ultimate bliss as its response.

  

This may be said for any occasion in our lives, I think:)

A place for grief, a place for grace

And that is how a human life evolves with the harmony and balance it needs,

in-between contrasts and extremities, ups and downs.

Always soaking up beauty.

Today I have a day off, and I am sorting out my photographs.

 

Photography is one of my passions. So is my family. So is true friendship. So is travelling. So is Nature.

So there is a lot to do.

Watching the past photographs, from now back to january, I see moments of sunlight, bathing in the lake, frolicking in the snow, I see grey clouds and dazzling light. I see so much, in such a little time.

I see things lost and things gone, I see the future ahead, wearing the most beautiful smiles possible.

In that very improbable, precarious, transitory place of now, I see beauty.

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened

I see a place for grief, a place for grace
 

And lots of beauty out there.

 

A Pace of Grace

This is a short post. I'd like to share the book I'm reading now.
The book is A Pace of Grace by Linda Kavelin Popov. I am still about halfway through it, but I have found something related to my previous post, Music of the Mind. In her book, she offers a four-part program which contains ten rules for health. In my previous post, I described ourselves as a piece of music. Well, our bodies are something like instruments that make tunes. And in order to succeed in playing a beautiful tune, maybe our bodies need to be healthy:) When you have time, please take a look at her homepage , in which you can see more about this book. 

To me, it's not easy to put into practice the rules 100%, but when I did some of them, I felt that I could have peace of mind. So..well..I'll keep trying as much as possible from now on:)

Sachi

Music of the Mind

So many things have popped into my mind since I read Val's previous post "Magical encounters" and I was unable to focus on anything.  Today, I would like to write only about the book called Music of the Mind, by Darryl Reanney.

I read this book about five or six years ago.  I don't think I could understand it properly; I just had my own interpretation, but since then, this book has become one of my favorites.  It is about an adventure into consciousness; however, there is essence of music, as the title suggests, with a beautiful sense of poetry throughout the book, which caught my heart.  It is very difficult for me to describe the book briefly, but if you would allow me to tell you  what I personally took from it, I would be happy to share my thoughts:

The structure of our consciousness is like the Universe. So, we are the Universe, so to speak, which is comprised of an energy wave that resonates with everyday events, with people we meet, with books, music, movies, and etc., beyond time and space, repeatedly and timelessly, like the ocean waves.
The more we experience and involve ourselves with others, the more we learn to vibrate beautifully.  The resonance occurs through the experience, and it takes form through our words and behavior.  We choose beautiful words or manners, as if we are playing beautiful music.  We are a piece of music and when we succeed in playing a beautiful tune, the universe shines brightly.

Isn't it intriguing to imagine that we are tunes ourselves?  Even when we are down or in a dark mood, we are still simply piece of music.  The important thing, I think, is to enjoy the music.
Well, my music now is kind of a "water, light, and wind" tune. How about yours?:)
Sachi

Unconditional love

I have been inspired by Val’s devotion to her lovely kids. I have noticed that she is radiant as sunshine when she talks about her kids. We mothers, have these feelings: strong unchangeable love for our children :)

I’ve heard before that real love never increase or decrease, and I remember I felt it’s perfect. Val describes her feeling as “Shining diamonds that I like to polish”, and I think it might be like saying "love", which shines brightly when we give it out. When I think of this, I feel peace of mind.

I also feel this love in nature: trees, plants, flowers, breeze…etc.
In Japan, cherry trees are in full bloom now. Their flowering period is so short, but they always  brighten me up. Let me share some photos here. Love is everywhere, right? :)

The first one is Shidare-zakura and the second one is Somei-yoshino: both are Cherry trees.

Beautify and Pacify

Beauty and peace…
These are things that we already have because of our nature. We simply forget about them. We have made ourselves complicated by comparing ourselves to others, desiring too much both spiritually and materially, and so on.

I would like to invoke Wabi-Sabi and Zen here.
Well, in my understanding so far, in a Wabi-Sabi world, there is beauty in simplicity. Getting rid of having too many things will help us reach this beauty. Also in a Zen world, concentrating deeply inside ourselves and trying to move the ego out of the way will bring us to reach the state of emptiness and nothingness (mushin in Japanese). Reaching this state, we feel PEACE of mind and also LOVE or supreme devotion, which is what we really are.

I have written other blogs and in the blog I wrote about what I had learned or recognized.
I feel those are also some of the keys for beautify and pacify. So let me share them here again.
“In looking at things through my heart’s eyes, I can change even negative things to love. It helps to see the problems behind the negatives and to understand and accept them.” 
“It’s likely that we came into this world to experience both good and bad, to confirm that we are love itself, and to deepen it. Without objects, we can’t see the love.” 
“Nothing is worthless. Like lights and shadows, everything plays a role in making this world beautiful.” “Looking deep inside myself is always important to keep this idea working.”

There is a chance to find the beauty and peace everywhere. Sharing is absolutely food for enlightenment. So when Val offered me to share this space with me, I felt so honored and pleased. At the core, we are all oneness, regardless of any nationality, age, or gender. I am so happy to share and also to learn from both Val and you.

Lastly, let me add something else.
English is my second language and I still have some problems in writing in English, so please forgive me for my writings being unnatural or difficult to understand. Thank you.

Sachi

Know yourself

I really don't know where this blog is heading to, but I love the idea of writing about how and where I find  beauty in life.

If I ask myself what is beauty, I won't be able to give a proper answer. Because Beauty, after all, will be different for each of us. Different, and yet with a common grasp of the basic things that mould and shape our lives. Call them love, friendship, emotion, passion, growth, motivation...

But really, beyond this common grasp of things, it all gets haywire, ecclectic, blurred, it is all funky, isn't it? If we want to find beauty in our lives, we've got to know what matters for us. And that is the trouble sometimes, beause we don't always know what really matters for us, until it is gone, or until a great shock makes us realize it, or until we get much older.

It takes, I believe, some serious thinking. And it also requires to follow one's instinct and inspiration. It calls for reading, discussing with other people. It takes curiosity and imagination.

This is something I want to pass on to my kids. 

I try to be very ecclectic in the way I raise them.. We listen to many different sorts of music, we dig classic and hip hop and country and this and that. We tune in to English-speaking radios and sometimes other languages too, so that we are aware of the music of other languages. We read comics, novels, articles, magazines. We talk and talk and talk about various changing subjects. We try to learn and get interested and open to other ideas and forms of knowledge and interest. I try not to shut my kids away from the world, I strive not to be 'anti' or 'pro', even if I, too, have my strong opinions :) I like to remember and tell my kids (well, the eldest at least) that there are, for example, several religions, and also the possibility of no religion, and that it is okay, as long as it resonates with what you feel, and as long as it does not hurt anyone. I like to remind my kids that they are allowed to enjoy and like things that I don't like or enjoy, because well, we are family, but we are all different too. And we are all entitled to be just what we are. Not what anyone else woud like us to be.

And so day by day, I find beauty in knowing myself better, and in doing my best to help my kids know themselves better too.

I picked this image from this place, and I love the way it inspires you not to give up on yourself. Not easy sometimes, but worth the effort.

Beautify...Pacify

After all, life is this amazing succession of events that leaves you breathless, exhilarated or battered, depending which phase of this life you are currently going through.
It is in turn sweet, tough, puzzling...but when I look for instance at this, I remember once more that everything is important, yet few things really matter.
It is about the people we meet and love, the places we go, the things we achieve and experience, the choices and memories we make. It is about enjoying and growing. One of the things that have always mattered to me, along with all these, is Beauty. Or maybe Beauty defines all the things I have just mentioned: the beauty I see and feel, the beauty I develop, the beauty of all small things around me, the beauty of the material world but also and most of all the beauty of the heart and mind. I have always felt the urge to acknowledge the beauty of the universe, and to beautify my environment whenever possible or needed. Like a gold digger. Like a beggar. Like a thief. Like a poet.
I have written other blogs before, never really knowing exactly what it was I needed to express: my love for photography? Writing? Crafting? Philosophy? Cooking? How daily life is so deeply entangled, with all its petty bumps and detours, with the conditions of our happiness and peace, with our intellectual and spiritual self?

I've felt the growing need to share my vision of life on this beautifying journey. I'm happy to open this little space where I'd like to share all the possible ways of seeing beauty where it is, showing it when it hides, creating it if I have to, whenever the days are getting darker, hunting it down when it seems to flutter away.

In the blogging world, I have had the pleasure of coming across the path of people who seem to focus on the same thing: what do I do with this life? How do I make it beautiful? Peaceful? Happy? I believe it starts with a choice, even if chance has its say. I've chosen to see beauty. But this blog is also named 'Pacify', as a dear friend of mine is going to share it with me. She has chosen to see and look for peace. She will soon present herself. Let me just add for now that I live in France and she lives in Japan; we both are women and mothers, friends and bloggers. We both want beauty and peace.

I can't wait to share this space here with her, and you!

Val