Summer of 2020... My brain is sizzled. How's yours? I hope you can still appreciate the moral of this story which is meant for children. Do let me know how you liked it. *wink*
In Belize, there is only one season. Hot. And when that’s all you know about you do not complain. I never complained. Never. But, as I got older I became curious when at the end of the year I started noticing a pattern. First came the migrating birds and shortly after the migrating tourists. They landed on our shores; their pale faces a sure indication that they weren’t getting enough sun.
Take my current circumstances for example. Up until a few days ago, people loved me; today I feel that I’m their target. Up until a few days ago, I felt I was so-so, not bad -- an okay Writer. Today I feel like I’m a fraud, a failure. ... I was feeling rotten therefore I saw things muddled through my already muddled lenses. I was a stinking dead fish.
Words, believe it or not, hurt deeply. A heart that weeps the life of a honey bee will undoubtedly find its heart shattered to pieces by mean words that hurt another human being. I ask that you be kind to all living things. Good living is not just about doing good but about not doing bad to all living things. If you have nothing good to say about someone, please, for the transcience of being, for the preciousness that life is, treat your life and that of everyone else with reverence and compassion. Curb your tongue.
In the 1990s I was a new mother raising my kids in a land so foreign than my own that tuning in to the way I saw my mommy-friends do it turned to be the new normal I wanted to imitate. I tried the mamachari... "The mamachari is a cultural icon, it’s the Japanese equivalent of the family station wagon. It’s the family workhorse used on shopping runs, for riding to the local station, taking the kids to school or picking them up from sports practice. Without it families around the country would be in a right pickle. "— Byron Kidd
Remembering something similar that happened to me a very long time ago when I came to Japan, I roared uncontrollably with my own bout of laughter. Words got stuck in my throat and with more to do than to just wait for his mother to recover from the laughter, my young man hung up on me.
I know that some of you reading this article today are feeling beat, depressed, disillusioned about things like your children’s prom as early as next month, perhaps; their upcoming class trips, graduations, and moving plans — that are yet to happen in the summer months. Now that we’re committed to living in the present, shouldn’t we be letting go of worrying over things that have yet to come to pass? Let’s not rush things. Instead, I ask that you put your hands together for the young ones, like yours in your homes, who are braving it now, here in Japan. Right now these young kids are living through those same milestone events that are yet to come in your area.
I've been in the company of strangers who became friends almost immediately; friends who were busy and a little lost. Like me, they were out looking to discover what kind of fruit trees they were. Now, I'm here to remind you that sometimes we need to sublimate our fears and go out looking for unfamiliar things in order to find ourselves.
"Oh, happy day," Lucille says, smiling, and forcing her eyes off her reflection on the mirror, looks around the room... I grew up in a small town, and it still warms my heart when I think of the many occasions I witnessed weddings. Everyone took to the celebrations as that what's happens in small towns when those wedding bells toll loudly.
Sometimes, when skies are cloudless, and everything's picturesque, days like these could turn into a curse for those with seasonal allergies. On such days, sometimes I think of gulping down some hot tea to numb my nostrils and bring some quiet in my head. Can you relate? I do not wish this on anyone-- I needed to write it down to take it out of my system.