I watched the new year’s lecture presented by the homeopathy teacher. At the beginning of the lecture, she shared her resolution of this year. It was 最低の自分になる. When I translate it as is, it says “stay being the terrible you”, but she of course has the deeper meaning from it. She wants us to be the terrible us for expressing your true emotions and wishes. Instead of constantly considering about others and putting your own wishes and true emotions asides, this year we can express our true wishes and follow our gut feelings. I really like her new year’s resolution, and I think I can follow her for that.

She also shared the concept of the Three Metamorphoses story of a camel, a lion, and a child originated by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher. It was a great reminder for me to stay being honest to my desires.  

In my dream my husband’s late grandma and my late dad-in-law visited me. I remember we had a good conversation but unfortunately I don’t remember the details. I know we were talking about the Navajoland and their culture. I hope I will have the continuous dream tonight.

It is the third day of the new year. We finally had a sunny day with Sun’s warm energy.

I spent my day in studying homeopathy lectures. My daughter enjoyed her day with playing video games and chatting with her cousin.

In the early evening I talked with one of the insurance agent group members. I saw her a couple of times in Zoom seminars but never talked with her in person. I enjoyed getting to know her. We found lots of common things in us. She is a realtor as well as a property manager. While I was listening to her about the housing market, I felt being blessed that we still keep renting the current house. It seems that our owner has been honest and nice to have us as their renter. We also have been honest and nice for them to stay in this house. I will keep sending good prayers to the house owner for being nice to us.

I slept through the morning and didn’t remember any dreams. Hopefully tomorrow, I will have the first meaningful dream with some messages of the new year.

The second day of the year was a rainy day same as yesterday.

It was a progressive day for me. I finished my sawing projects that had been piled up on my sawing machine. I could finish two assignments for the homeopathy therapist course.

My family and I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and did the morning routine of new year’s morning. We went for a walk and sent a good prayer for our new year. After my husband left for work, I did a 40-minute Yoga Nidra mediation, followed by my morning routine of a jogging on the treadmill and a dry heating session in the home sauna. I was ready to welcome an upcoming new year with the refreshed body, mind, and spirit.

This year started with a female rain. The rain continued all day long. It was a cleansing process to the Mother Earth after our 2-years hectic pandemic terms. Hopefully things of this year will get much better than the previous two years.

The year 2023 is 癸卯. 癸 is the last turn meaning one cycle ends and moves to a new cycle. 卯 is a rabbit. As a rabbit represents, it means “prosperous.”

In the evening at 5 p.m., I attended the online Reiki gathering. There were more people than usual and we had 53 attendees. the gathering started with a 108-Joya-no-kane meditation. The teacher explained about 除夜の鐘 as the temple’s bells of New Year’s Eve. It is the Buddhism teaching and now has become one of the Japanese traditional events at the end of the year. In the Buddhism teaching, humans have created lots of impurities in the daily life. Ringing the bell for 108 times is to bring up the impurifications and purify them, so that we can welcome a new year with a purified body. We ring the bell 107 times during the previous year and the last one, the 108^th bell, is rung at the right after the new year has begun. The impurifications are called Bon-nou 煩悩. There are three foundations of Bon-nou; (1) being greedy and craving for a certain food, (2) anger, and (3) ignorance for nor being awaken spiritually.

In the morning my family and I went to the ice skate link. We found out there were already more than 20 people in the link and seemed to be jammed, so we gave up joining there today.

At home I prepared for the toshikoshi soba that is the traditional Japanese dinner of the New Year’s Eve to wish for the long and healthy life.

In the early evening, I took my courage to call my dad. The last time I called him was the middle of July. It has been almost 6 months passed without contacting him. I prayed and asked my family spirits that our conversation would go peaceful and well. Then I called. My dad answered the phone right away. As soon as he recognized my voice, he happily greeted me for a happy new year. We exchanged our recent life and happily ended our conversation. I am glad that his voice sounded very strong and healthy.

***

It is the last day of the year of 2022. This year was one of the busiest years for me. I had gone through many new experiences. In March, I purchased an annuity product for myself and signed up for the membership for the financial study group. I started studying to become a professional financial consultant. I had studied very hard for two months, and passed the insurance license test with the first trial at the end of April. Now I am a licensed insurance agent. In June I started studying for the professional family homeopath license, and in September, I started studying for the professional inner child therapist license. And, in August, I signed up for the membership to become a professional palmist and started studying for it. In summary, this year was my study year. I had studied a lot and met many new people through the process. This year was a good year for me. I will continue this life style of improving my ability and spiritual awareness in the upcoming new year. Thank you so much to my dear family; my husband and daughter, and my Japanese family; my dad and brother in Japan, my dear friends who have been constantly standing by me, and all the people whom I met newly in this year. May all of you have a happy progressive new year.   　

My family and I went for Bowling. It was a nice and walm day and our hands were not numbed as last time. Our scores were not bad as last time.

We stopped by at the horse corral to make a next appointment of the horseback riding tour. there were some horses peacefully eating hay here and there, but we didn’t see any humans in the area. Maybe they already left for the horseback tour with customers. Even though we didn’t see any humans, I enjoyed watching the horses there.

In the night my husband received a phone call from his mother. It was the announcement that one of her sisters passed away. She had been sick for the past one year. She passed away during her sleep peacefully. I hope she is now at peace and safe place.

I woke up feeling sick with some symptoms of a cold. I seldom have a sore throat, but this morning I had it. When I drank some water, I felt pain in my throat.

In the morning my family and I went for Bowling. It was a very cold day and our hands were numb from the coldness even we were indoor. Every time when we threw the ball, it changed the direction regardless of our intention and our scores were not good as usual.

After I came back home, I still felt being sick. After I finished my regular routine of a jogging on the treadmill and a heating session in the home sauna, I took a long comfortable walm bath. Then I had a homemade medicine tea with grated daikon radish and Ume-Sho. Bancha. I was planning to take a nap, but by the time I finished the medicine tea, I started feeling refreshed and my sore throat was completely gone. I am thankful for the sore throat; the symptom, so that I could take care of my body properly. It was final detox of this year.  

***

In the night at 8 p.m., I attended the gathering of the insurance agent group. There were some group members who privately contacted me and told me that they were happy to see me again. I truly appreciate them for their kind words.  

In the early morning I went to the grocery stores. I had a long shopping list so I needed to stop by three different stores. Luckily, I left my house much earlier than usual, so that everything including the roads and the stores were nice and peaceful.

In the middle of this year, we had a hectic economy. The gas price was raised to $5, and the prices of all the foods and items were also raised due to the unusual inflation rate. Now it seems to be calming down. The gas price around my area is back to around $3.20. the prices of foods and items are slightly back to the previous ones. One of the exceptions is eggs. They are constantly out of stock in my local grocery stores and the prices stay higher than before. All in all, I still think this year of 2022 was one of the good years for everybody.

In the morning at 9:30 a.m., I had a private Q& A session with the insurance company workers. He clearly answered all my questions and concerns. I appreciate him for his kindness and helpful information. I appreciate my family spirits to have answered my requests. I now feel comfortable to have a great resource in the future whenever I need some supports in terms of the insurance sales.