ありがとうとかけて、夢と解く

その心は、どちらでもYou(ゆ)とMe(め)がからむ素敵な言葉です。

Sorry for opening this post with a low quality nazokake which have no relation to the content :-), but several days ago Farah and I received a greeting card for our wedding with lots of heart-warming messages. I’d like to share one of those messages, because I think it was too good to be kept only for us.

Here the message read:

ありがとうを言って行動すると、あなたの夢が叶います

Which can be loosely translated as:

Be grateful and act, then your dream will come true.

The message came with a calligraphy of the word ありがとう which was fashioned into the kanji of 夢. A combination of wisdom and art indeed.

Well, it looks like gratitude is a universal currency - I believe all cultures regard it as an important quality. Even my religion mentioned that the blessing upon us will be increased if we are being grateful for the blessing that we had received.

And since there are countless of blessing that have been bestowed upon me throughout the years, I think the message remind me to be more thankful and not taking those blessing for granted. I hope I will never forget about that. 

And for Yurin: Thanks for the message!今度習字を教えてください！

花見日和

They say that the sun always shines on TV, but sometimes the weather forecast on TV is not that bad. Like yesterday, when it said that it would be a fine day today, it proved so. And because my Kooriyama’s mother had told me that this week is the full bloom of Takizakura in Miharu, then the conclusion is only one: today is the day for Miharu visit, unless I want to wait for another year to see the sakura. And up is the result. 

Brief facts about Miharu’s takizakura: it is one of Japan’s five famous sakura – the sakura trees that had been declared as natural monuments. The tree was estimated to have been there for more than 1000 years. And for someone who considered Fukushima as one of his 故郷, it really took long time for me to finally visit there (well, I’ve passed by it several times though). And even though it took around 4 hours round trip in order to see the sakura, I’m not regretting going there today to have seen it in such a fine weather.

糸

(Actually I want to post this at the 50th wedding anniversary of my parents last November, but I got a bit busy, so it was delayed until now. The following song automatically played on my mind when I flipped through the pictures of my parents, that's why I put the English translation of the lyrics here (loosely translated).
The song called 糸 (Ito - thread) by Miyuki Nakajima, and I always love the lyrics of the song. For those of you who haven't heard of it before, I think you can find the song on Youtube :-) )

糸(Thread)

We know nothing about why we meet

and we never know when we are going to meet

Where and how have you lived till now

somewhere so far away from me

You and I are two different stories

It is as if your life is the vertical threads

and mine is the horizontal threads

They were woven together into a shred of cloth

And one day, that simple shred of cloth might help warming someone on a cold winter night

 
Frayed when I got lost in the maze of my life

and frayed once more after stumble down chasing all the dreams

There were times when I wondered

will this thread of mine ever do any good

Feeling uncertain, blown by the chilling wind

Your life is the vertical threads

and mine is the horizontal threads

They were woven together into a shred of cloth

And one day, that simple shred of cloth might help cover someone's wound

 
Your life is the vertical threads

and mine is the horizontal threads

When the threads that are meant to be are woven together

The woven shred of cloth is the cloth of happiness