Hello! Autumn

Greetings from me!

Hello!

How is everyone?

So many things have happened all over Japan.
Sadness, anxiety, joy, being the best in the world, pride.
Just watching the news, I feel all kinds of emotions overflowing inside me.

Whatever the emotion,
there is something I am holding on to tightly.
Fear, it seems, often begins with a strong wish to "protect something."

Hearing that, you may think of things like money, family, home, effort, or your own dignity,
but I feel that what lies at the root of them all is "LIFE" itself.

LIFE is something we give back to space.
Something we simply return to the flow of this great universe.

The true me knows this flow somewhere deep down, and yet has a habit of holding on tight.

Noticing this, I spent the week focusing on treating life with care, tending to it, and how I can give it back to this world.

I am praying for peace for each of you.

Knowing What Is Enough

It was in my thirties that I was a seminar junkie.
Whenever I heard of a good teacher or method somewhere, in Japan or abroad,
wanting to do something about my restricted situation, wanting somehow to become financially stable, too!
I busily flew from one place to another.

Back then, someone who was attending seminars just like me once said this to me:

"Betty, you're already perfect. You don't need seminars anymore. You came to sharpen a knife that had gone dull,
but you've sharpened it so much that it isn't even a knife anymore."

Those words stopped me in my tracks, and even now, whenever I overdo something, I make a point of remembering them.

I am still grateful for everything I learned through those seminars back then, and most of it has become my foundation.
Even so, I think I was dependent on seminars, taking one new seminar after another as if looking for what was lacking in me.

I think "taru o shiru," knowing what is enough, is a truly lovely Japanese expression.

In my consciousness, too, there must always be a state of "enough."
Just as there is the right amount of water to give a plant,
do you not think there is also an amount of knowledge or therapy that is just right for our consciousness, our mind, at any given moment?

If each of us were a knife, then reading, seminars, therapy, and the like
would be wonderful sharpeners that keep that knife honed to just the right edge so it works smoothly.
But if we overuse them, even the original shape of the one-of-a-kind being called "I" can disappear.
A feel for sharpening just enough, for having enough,
is something we need in order to love ourselves, is it not?

Enjoy!

B

(2018/9/10)