BONNOU

Have you ever heard the word "BONNOU"? It is one of Buddhism words. I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm Japanese, so I'm surrounded by lots of Buddhism things naturally. So for me BONNOU is a popular word, and "we" (it means most of Japanese" sometimes say that we are harassed by earthly desires. ( According a dictionary, BONNOU is earthly desires in English.)

I read an interesting book about BONNOU.
The writer, who is a monk, said to release your BONNOU

1. not to seek a deep contact with people surround you, including your family.
2 not to be irritated about yourself. If you are irritated, try to think about what makes you irritated.
3.not excuse yourself
4, no pressure, be patient.
5.not compare with something.

I know everything is difficult. But what is the most difficult thing for you?
For me, I tend to seek a deep contact with people, because I don't like feeling lonely.

My brother who is now 50, came back to my mother's house, and he has started to live with her. (Because he divorced.) I don't care about my brother's divorce. But my mother , who is now 78, sounds very happy though she says "I'm busy in cooking."
Probably she had been living with her loneliness. even though her second son's family lives next to door. Her husband died 35 years old at that time he was 53.  I think she has started the second life with her son. (Actually both of them have lots of things in common, for example, they are nervous, and they are stubborn, and --- Oh, sorry I'm not good at saying good things for my father and my brother.)

I gave up gardening.

 

 

 

Finaly gardeners finished their work. My "green" garden has bone. And we got a "shimple" garden.

 

I like seeing a green garden. But I hate weeding. So I gave up to organize my garden.

I'll grow harbs with  big pots.

 

We are going forward to a simple life.

 

Iwauchiwa

How was your weekend? Yuki and I had a good weekend. We went to a small mountain to see Iwauchiwa, which is a kind of alpine plants. They are blooming in the shade  of the mountain. Iwa means rock, and Uchiwa means Japanese flat fan.The leaves of Iwachiwa look like Uchiwa, and they thrive in a mountain which has lots rock. So they are called Iwauchiwa.
We knew we would go to a mountain, but we thought it would be a small mountain, so it would be easy to "walk".
However we had to "climb" up the steep up-down.

 
 

aBelow the mountain a ocarina solo concert was being held. And we saw another alpine plant, which is SYOJYOUBAKAMA. They are bigger than Iwauchiwa. There we bought some edible alpine plants, and, of course I made TENPURA for our dinner that night.

Karaku

Now it's already in the middle of April,isn't it?

This week I went to play the piano at KARAKU, which is a tea room.  There were beautiful cherry blossoms along the street in front of KARAKU, so many people came to seethe cherry blossoms, and dropped by KARAKU. It means that KARAKU was full of people. For me it was unusual. And the larger audience made my spirits uplift. Here I got some requests, which are Japanese old songs. Fortunately I remembered, so I could play them. Most of people there were elderly people, the oldest woman was 80. They seemed to really enjoy listening to Japanese old songs. I'm sure I gave an uplift in spirits to the people. And looking their wonderful smile made me also happy.

(Jan, are these sentences correct? I tried to use the words I learnt from you.)

 

And this week I had many guests in turn. On Monday, I went to visit a friends' house with this lunch. In Japan, many people cook beans, and foreigners are surprised to tasting "sweet" beans. But these days salty beans salad is getting popular. I love beans salad.

On Wednesday, and Thursday my friends came to have lunch together.
I cooked oranges again, and baked milk biscuits.
And I also made tortellini's salad.

 

One friend talked to me about her daughters and her grand child. She has enjoyed her life as a mother and a grand mother.

Another friend who get married but no child, talked to me about her job and a travel plan. She has enjoyed her life.

Though we don't need compare their lives, they are completely different.

 

In my case, probably I'm doing a halfway job, while I'm doing a halfway mother's job. (I don't know what the suitable way to discribe my stutiation. This sentence doesn't include negative attidute.)

It's me. So two different types of people came to my house in turn. It's fun.

 

Well today I'll go to a jym for a workout. There I'll meet another friend who is hooked on training.

 

 

Picture books in April

April has come. This year Easter is in April. It's interesting that Easter is not fixed. Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon in March, isn't it? So this year I'm going to do Easter events next week.

This is one of books to read in April.
There are one or two sentences in each page, so it's easy to read for anyone, and the contents are clear.
You might know the author "Ruth Krauss".
Probably the most well-know book is "the carrot seed".

 

I have other two her books, so I read them again.

I remember now, when I read this book to kids, I presented some seeds to them. Did they plant them?

And I also remember now that I have had a plan.

I have wanted some small kids to draw pictures on a wall with abandon like Harold, of course not in my house.

 

Do you have any plans to celebrate Easter?

 

 



Praising game

This is a card game which recently I found and bought. This is produced by disabled people. 

I'm in the generation of "SHOWYA". SHOWYA is  a period from 1926 to 1989. Additionally, I have to accept the truth my mother and I are in the same generation.  But the youth is in the generation of "HEISEI". Now it is in HEISEI 26th, or you can say it's in 2014 now.

What I want to say is that to discipline meant to scold in SHOWA period. Now everybody say to bring up kids while praising them. However in our case Yuki and I are not used to praising someone. So we need to learn how and when we praise someone  a little.  Yuki needs to encourage and praise his subordinates. I need to encourage and praise my students, young mothers and " my mother". 

We started to praise each other every morning to get used to praise someone using these cards in turn.

Until this week, we used these cards.

1. What are the advantages of scolding? Make a one minute speech.

2. The person on your right says one negative or bad word, and you try to change the word into two positive or good words.

3. Praise the person on your left for one minute.

4. Praise the person on your right about his or her character for two things.

5. Praise the person on your left about his or her appearance for one minute.

6. Praise yourself for one minute.

 

How do you do these things?