Tsurezure Naru Mamani

Some people say everything happens for a reason. Some people say there are no coincidences.

Yesterday I wrote about New Year’s resolution, which is, intelligently inspirational writing. Today, at work, a bunch of circulated business whatever was passed to me. In the bunch, I found a magazine published by a mega bank. A feature article for the magazine is about inspirational quotes. Is this a coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyways. This year I want to write something to intelligently and quietly inspire others. It doesn’t have to be like proverbs. This blog can be one. There will be other media. We’ll see.

One of the inspirational quotes in the magazine is very famous in Japan. It says;

為せば成る、為さねば成らぬ何事も、成らぬは人の為さぬなりけり

A typical translation of the quote is “where there is a will, there is a way”. It literally means, if you try something, it can be achieved. If you don’t try anything, nothing can be achieved. Achieving nothing is due to one’s unwillingness to try something.

I don’t know if I can be a good writer or not, but try something anyway, believing it can be achieved.

Happy New Year!

Every year I send season’s greetings with my original illustration to my friends. It’s always a combination of Christmas greetings to my Canadian friends and New Year greetings to my Japanese friends.

In 2017, the world was confused by Donald Trump. He is obviously a racist and provokes racism. However, today, as many other people know, we should embrace diversity. I was inspired by this idea, and the theme of this year’s illustration is diversity. Year 2018 is a year of the Dog. Dogs are known for the diverse breeds; German Shepherd is a breed of dog, and so is Pug. No matter if their hair is short or long, black or white, they are dogs.

Please visit my greetings web site for more explanation for the illustration.

In past few years I wrote about my New Year’s resolution on this blog, like below.
2017: to mind my breath to be mindful
2016: to visit a historical site once a month
2015: to ignite my intellectual curiosity

Every resolution above is not easy to achieve and also fun to pursue. For this year, I’m thinking of intelligently inspirational writing. I’ll talk more about this.

There are two types of pain; one is the pain itself, the other is that other people don’t understand the pain.

One of my favourite singer songwriters, Risa Hirano wrote in her blog what her mentor told her; 80% of people suffer from pain daily, therefore, if your life is always happy and bright, you cannot write songs to touch other 80% people’s heart. Honestly, I don’t know what writing songs is like, but I understand what it means. Feeling other people’s pain is a unique ability of human beings. When a pain is understood by others, it can be healed. Singer songwriters often mitigate other people’s pain by sharing their pain in an artistic way. They tell us “you are not alone”.

Honestly speaking, when I’m stressed out, or even provoked, and depressed, I often think “why me?”. What makes the situation worse is the norm in Japanese working world; expressing pain at work is considered to be making excuse to avoid painful jobs, so you should keep quiet. In such a situation, pain will never be understood, will never be healed. In such a situation, I should recall what I wrote in an old post; encouraging my friends encourages myself. If I am discouraged, encourage others. But, can I? Am I strong enough to do that?

One day, when I was leaving my work place, I found small flowers in the parking. That’s a factory, and many workers throw away cigarette or whatever wherever. Trash are scattered over the parking. But no matter how nasty the environment is, they bear pretty flowers. They made me think that no matter what others do or say, I can remain myself and stand strong even under provocation.

It’s not about the environment or the circumstances. It’s myself. Even if my pain is not understood by others, I can understand other people’s pain and encourage them. It is easy to say but hard to do, but I’ve found it heals my pain.

It’s been almost three months since I came back to Canada for a long-term business trip (and I have not updated my blog for almost three month. Sorry!). I’ve done many things in Canada so far: in Calgary, Hamilton, Orillia, and in Mississauga and Toronto. And what I do now is very different from my previous experiences. I inevitably work with Japanese where I need to be Japanese.

Japanese are funny people. Some of them assume that those who can speak English can do whatever in English, which is obviously wrong. It’s just like expecting them to do whatever in Japanese because they can speak Japanese. But in fact, obviously, people have skills, knowledge and expertise in different fields. Some people simply don’t understand it. One good thing is that I can experience something new unexpectedly thanks to my ability to speak English. Now I work as a coordinator and negotiate with other people in English. When I got this position, I thought “oh, come on, don’t expect me to do whatever. I have little experience in this”. It took me some time to accept the reality, but now I think this is not bad. I like communicating with people. I like mediating or facilitating roles. This can be a good opportunity for me to experience something new and improve skills in this new field.

The current job also makes me recognize that I am somehow different from typical conservative Japanese; I am more adaptable than them. I remember that I wrote something like this in an old post when I worked for another Japanese company in Canada. Probably I can be adaptable not only thanks to my character but also because of the unusual variety of experiences in the past. Now, I need to be adaptable at a higher level, adaptable enough to work with conservative Japanese. I usually try to stay away from those conservative ones because they are a pain. Now I don’t need to be “generous”, don’t need to get along and hang out with them, but need to accept the difference and understand their attitude rather than complaining about their behaviour. You might think “is it that big deal?”. Yes, it is to me. this will be a new experience to me.

I also need to accept, again, that life in unstable. It’s a long story, but I don’t know what I will be doing two months from now though I have a full-time job now. It’s a long story. Whatever happens, it will be a new experience to me. Let’s see.

There is always a “second best” choice. But it seems like that a second best can be even better than the best.

There are different ways to get old. A few years ago I wrote about a demented president of a micro company that I worked for. He tried hard to find and point out other people’s mistakes to show he was smarter than others, but it never worked out. He was around 60 years old then. On the other hand, there are amazing elders. I was impressed by this internet article, 70-year-old woman runs 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. Even a 70-year-old woman who runs a full marathon is amazing enough. And she did SEVEN marathons on SEVEN continents in SEVEN days! This fact is incredible enough, and her comment impressed me further.

“I live a stressful life. Every day, I work 10 hours a day … but I always feel better,” Smith said. “How I feel after I put in my running, I think that’s important. It makes you feel good. I can’t really put it into words.”

Many people spend a busy, stressful life today. But how many of them can turn it into good feeling? Not many. When people work long hours daily and feel stressed, while some people simply live with it, probably “the best” solution is to reduce the workload and avoid stress. However, when the best one does not work, it seems like that some people choose “a second best” solution to do something else in their rare spare time to make themselves feel better. I admire them. In her case it turned out to be an amazing story and encourages others.

As I wrote in the previous post, my lifestyle will change soon, which I expect to be an opportunity to see how this year’s resolution would work; to mind my breath to be mindful. If workload cannot be reduced, another second best choice is to see the situation from a different perspective. Let’s see.

Three days, three months, three years. Some people say those are the timings when people think of quitting their job. I know a few people who quit their job on day three or four. It was in the third year in my first job when I thought of a different career path.

In last couple of years, I wrote about “New Year’s” resolution in March. The resolution for the year 2015 was “to ignite my intellectual curiosity“. The resolution for the year 2016 was “to visit a historical site once a month“. Three months should be long enough for many people to quit New Year’s resolution. If you have kept a resolution for three months, you may want to continue it longer, up to a year, or even longer.

In early January this year, I wrote about a “candidate” of New Year’s resolution, which is to mind my breath to be mindful. It’s been a little more than two months since then, and it turned out to be quite difficult. Mindful means to be “deliberately aware of your body, mind, and feelings in the present moment, in order to create a feeling of calm (Cambridge University Press, 2017)”. Whether you mind your breath or not, you won’t be choked, of course. But when you don’t mind your breath, your mind may be occupied by something unimportant or worthless. In fact, when I feel somehow stressed and uncomfortable, especially at work, I find myself not breathing comfortably and negative mind has emerged. To mind your breath is a good start to spend a mindful life. Trying it for a couple of month is just enough to find how difficult it is. Now the candidate has got the position.

I know my life style will change soon; I’ll go back to Canada and play a different role at work. I expect it to be stressful. Let’s see how I can (or cannot) keep calm there.

Combridge University Press. (2017, 3 16). Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved from Meaning of “mindful” in the English Dictionary: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mindful