Japan

Having a place of your very own that is filled with joy is like having a hand warmer in your pocket on a freezing cold day.

It actually made me sad. It was the same feeling you get at a train station, or in a hospital, or on the street, when you stop a safe distance away from someone who can’t seem to help but talk and talk, whether or not anyone is there to listen. Watching Makiko carry on like that, that’s how I felt. It’s not like I didn’t care about Makiko or what

It’s like one of those Greek tragedy masks in a textbook that’s half one idea and half the opposite. Light and dark. Hope and despair. Laughter and sadness. Trust and loneliness.

This nurturing of the whole person calls to mind a Japanese concept called ikigai, which means ‘reason for being’. Ikigai is whatever it is that gives your life value and meaning. It is the intersection between what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for. Those who manage to find this sweet spot are,

When I taught in Japan, I learned how to say yasashikuyawarakaku, which encompasses “slowly, softly, and gently.”