Summer

Greetings from me!

Hello!

How is everyone?

What a fiercely hot summer it is.

How are you relating to this heat?

You can relate to it simply as "It's hot!"

some relate to it as all the vitamin D they could want,

and others take it as a disaster for spots and freckles.

Whatever the case,

this weather itself is something we are simply given;

we cannot choose it, and we would rather not waste energy going against it.

Simply, with humility,

Just show up in your life as is.

(Simply placing yourself in the place called life is enough)

That’s the easiest way.

(That is the easiest path)

Worries About the Future

How much energy do we spend every day worrying about the future?

I wonder how many of us have noticed.

In the past, I, too,

as Eckhart Tolle sharply pointed out in "The Power of Now" (Japanese edition from Tokuma Shoten), that most people are almost always worrying about the future,

was living my days exactly like that.

But how we live now, link by link, creates the future.

I have finally come to truly feel that simple truth recently, and joy has returned to me.

When you work toward the future, thinking "I have to lose weight, I have to lose weight," the present is not fun,

and you may lose sight of something.

But when I simply chose what felt good to me now, what I was given, before I knew it, I had lost weight.

And today, for the first time in a long while, I slipped my arms into a jacket that had not fit me for ages,

and I am just so happy.

With far too many choices,

we hate ourselves for being unable to choose,

and feel ashamed of ourselves for not being able to do things.

But what life gives us now,

being able to be ourselves, right there, in that moment,

and always being flexible with whatever we are given:

that is what is truly abundant and creative!

Creativity is a treasure that is truly yours alone, one you never need to compare with anyone.

Let us enjoy it.

Enjoy!

B

(2018/8/10)