"Happiness lies less in our circumstances than in what we make of them, in every sense."

My friend Jon sent me this article today after we talked briefly after a meeting at the Board of Education, talking about how Jon didn't miss America at all really, and how it took until my third year in Japan to get homesick for the States.

There are a lot of things I miss in the States, mostly friends and family, food I like to eat, memories of places that I love and things that I have done, but there is a certain peace, a calm simplicity that I feel when I'm in Japan. Everything seems quieter, even chaotic situations seem organized, simple and natural things are celebrated in their own special way on a daily basis. While I'm excited to be going back to the States, there is a chunk of my heart that is filled with a buzzing and frightened anxiety...I don't want to lose what I have discovered here.

So this article Jon sent me...he said it was really funny that we were talking about what we were talking about today because he found this article soon after. I say it was funny, because when I noticed the article was written by Pico Iyer, I was catapulted back 3 years to my senior year at UC Santa Cruz. I worked part-time at the campus Baytree Bookstore while I was studying, and in the weeks before I was going to graduate and leave for Japan, the man who was in charge of the actual book section (not textbooks, but novels), Thediki, came up to me and handed me a book by Pico Iyer, The Lady and The Monk. He told me that I should read it before I went to Japan, that it was a good book and might be good preparation for my trip. I ended up not reading it until I went to Japan, nibbling at it in chapters as before-bedtime reading. I remember it was a good book, but I think if I read it again now, I would appreciate it so much more, especially after living here for 3 years. When I first came to Japan, I was caught up in the whirlwind of a new country and new experiences, busy being a social butterfly. In the course of three years, I have settled down, found my niche, found comfort in a quieter and more solitary lifestyle. I told Jon that maybe this is a bit of stretch, but I wonder if all this is a coincidence, or fated to happen? Though the event of receiving the Pico Iyer book from Thediki three years ago and receiving the article from Jon today are quite separate in time and space, the timing is too impeccable; the book was received before I was about to embark on a new adventure, and the article was received when I am in the process of wrapping up this three year long blessing of an adventure. In between those two events, I have heard not a single mention of the name Pico Iyer. Strange...

Here's the article Jon sent me, from The New York Times, by Pico Iyer:

"The Joy of Less"

I hope that I can find (or create for myself) a similar peace and happiness at home as the one I have had in Japan; “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

A Lazy Saturday

• Woke up at 9:30, beautiful warm day with a breeze.
• Went to my shodou class with Miyuki from 10:30. Wrote 南十字星 (The Southern Cross). I felt very relaxed and focused, and I think I did pretty well today.
  
• Slices of watermelon and beautiful purple-blue あじさい (hydrangeas) from Miyuki.
  
• Leftover eggplant and carrot curry with rice for lunch.
• Spent the rest of day tidying up the apartment, cleaning out clothes, enjoying being at home.
  

I love my apartment and all the shades of brown and green in it: beige textured walls, pale yellow-brown tatami with sage green border trim, golden-brown raw wood beams, grainy wood flooring, lime-green kitchen tiles, mint-green curtains with dark green dots, mint-green couch, bed and armoir that match the wood beams. Feels like my little natural safe-haven. I'm going to miss this apartment a lot: the space, the warmth, the freedom.

I realize now that when I go home and get a place of my own, I need natural surroundings, fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers, artistic hobbies, and warmth and light. I think it's what makes me feel the happiest and most centered.

I love Saturdays like this. <3