This morning my daughter took an extra time to leave the house. She was slower than usual in putting her shoes and tying her shoelaces. We left the house by 4 minutes later than normal. We didn’t worry, because it was still much earlier than the bus arrival time. We knew we would make it.

Our neighbor boy joined us walking. While three of us were walking our way to the bus stop, we saw two kids were running very fast in our far distance ahead. We looked at each other’s face in bewilder. It could not be the bus arrived at this time. It was too early for the bus to come.

In next moment though, we saw the yellow school bus passed by the other street. For some reasons, the bus came much earlier than usual this morning. It was our very first time to have missed the bus. We were shocked.

I asked my daughter and the neighbor boy if they wanted me to give them a ride to school. They said they could walk to school. So, three of us started walking to school.

When we were passing by at the bus stop, our other neighbor mom pulled over her car in front of us. She was on her way to give her two boys a ride to school. It was nice of her that she offered us a ride. I jumped in the passenger’s seat. The four kids squeezed in the back seat. The kids seemed to be tight and squished, but they seemed to have enjoyed the squashing. They were laughing together.

The neighbor mom asked me if I was planning to attend the craft event at school. I didn’t know about that. Later I found out the teacher of my daughter’s class forgot to inform us about that. Anyway, we decided to attend the event together.

The event was to make an ornament for the Christmas tree. It was fun. I had a great time spending lots of time with the neighbor mom, so did our kids. If you are curious, our ornaments are these.

Our being late for the bus this morning brought us a nice surprise. All in all, it was a happy accident for us.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter’s school had the annual Christmas concert this afternoon. Every year I look forward to this concert. I enjoy the kids’ songs and dances there.

In previous years, I could not hold my tears back because the kids’ voices were beautiful and holy. I felt embarrassed about my shedding tears among the huge audience.

So, this year I decided not to cry. Before I left my house, I told myself in the mirror out loud, not to cry.

When I arrived at the school gym, there were already a huge audience of the parents and relatives.

The audience welcomed our kids by clapping hands, whistling through their fingers, and cheering them up. Their vibration was just so beautiful that I already felt my tears were about to come out. It was even before the kids started singing.

As usual, the music concert was great. I had to pinch my thigh very hard to prevent my tears from dropping down.

I wonder if my mom had the same feeling as I do, whenever she attended my music concert at school. Most likely she did.

In the process of raising children, parents are blessed at every moment. We should cherish and enjoy the precious moment.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today IKEA announced the finalists in their homepage. You can see the winners in this page.

I personally wanted my daughter’s artwork to win and a bit disappointed at the fact hers didn’t win.

My daughter reacted different from me.

She was excited and happy for the winners. She praised all the winner’s artworks from her heart.

Her pure action opened my eyes. Indeed, everyone’s artwork is great. Great job to everyone who entered the contest.

It was a great experience for my daughter to participate in the contest. Winning is great, but participating does bring great experience as well. All the participants must have enjoyed the process of creating their artwork. That counts a lot.

My daughter is willing to participate in the next year too, so I will keep an eye on their next year’s contest.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Our trip to Japan is coming closer and closer. My daughter and I are so excited about it.

My daughter often talks about our last trip to Japan. It was October in 2017.

My last trip to Japan was very emotional for me, because I had not seen my parents for the previous seven years. On their visit in America in 2011, my mom and I had a very bad fight. Since then we stopped contacting each other for several years.

I still remember about my last trip. It started with tears and ended with tears. Very emotional trip.

I started crying in the car where my husband gave us a ride to the airport. I sobbed at San Francisco airport while transferring airplane. Even in the airplane heading to Japan, I could not stop crying most of the hours of the 12 hours flight. I sobbed at the airport in Japan right after we arrived. I sobbed in the shuttle bus. I sobbed in the hotel. I even sobbed in the aquarium during the fun dolphin show.

One day while I was chatting my mom at their house, my mom spitted out some mean words to me. It was completely normal to her. It was her habit. Instantly I reacted to her words. I got furious at her. I yelled at her and cried at the same time.

My daughter was the only one who stayed calm. She whispered to me in my ear and told me to calm down. She also mentioned my mom didn’t mean it. It was her old bad habit. I should just let it go. Without my daughter’s support, my mom and I would have ended up with a bad fighting again, which might have separated us forever.

***

Recently while my daughter and I were taking a long hot bath, she asked me a small favor.

Her small favor for me was not to fight with my mom during our upcoming trip in Japan.   

I told my daughter it would be up to my mom. In case my mom spits out mean wording again, I might react.

My mom said something mean even about my daughter while our last trip. I asked my daughter if she understood what my mom said in Japanese. My daughter nodded. She understood everything what my mom said about her and me. According to my daughter, those words were nothing to her. She just let go of it. And I should do the same.

This is what my daughter told me.

As of now, sadly, my mom has not changed her bad habit. She most likely will spit out some mean wording to me and my daughter during our upcoming visit. This will be a great opportunity for me to grow up spiritually. My mom won’t change but I can, with my will. I can change my reaction to her mean words. Considering the fact my mom loves me, her mean wording is not her true feeling. It is just her bad habit. By knowing the fact all the time, I can change myself. I can react to my mom with my unconditional love to my mom no matter what. Then, the relationship between my mom and I will shift upward.

I am thankful for my daughter to share her wisdom. I am learning a lot from my daughter. She is an old matured soul.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today my family and I finally took out our Christmas tree from the garage and decorated it.

In previous years we used to prepare for Christmas right after Thanksgiving Day. In some years even before Thanksgiving Day.

This year though, we had been so occupied with other chores that we didn’t have time to do so.

Still cannot believe the Christmas is right around the corner already.

Toward the end of this year, I thought back about this year.

This year has been treated us pretty nicely. The year of 2018 was definitely one of my great years in my life.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning in my dream, my family and I were celebrating for our brand new house. It was our dream house. Three of us loved it.

First, I saw the house layout from a human’s perspective, by entering from the entrance door, as we usually do. Then, my conscious floated up-high and checked the entire house with an aerial view. I saw the house in the two-dimensional drawing as well as three-dimensional drawing. I enjoying checking our future house from many different angles. 

Unlike the common new house’s layout which is rectangle, our house was in a square. It contained four bedrooms.

It also contained an extra small room, which I could use it as a healing session room for my clients. Conveniently, this room has a bathroom and an entrance door from the outside.

Between the roof and the walls, there were many skinny windows to get the natural sunlight.

Its many windows made the air can naturally flows in and out.

In my dream my daughter was around 16 years old. It might indicate our dream house will be built seven years later from now.

There were two young boys in our house. They were around the age of early 20s. they both were handsome and friendly. They both were so happy.

I, in my dream, instantly recognized them as one of my family spirits. They also would live in our future dream house with us. I loved their uplifting energies.

***

I will hold on to this house image until it makes it happen in the reality.

I am looking forward to it.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Two weeks ago, my daughter’s art club teacher encouraged my daughter to submit her artwork to the contest. The contest is presented by the organization in Tucson. The first prize winner will be awarded a $100 gift card to purchase their preferred art materials.

My daughter draw a picture of a girl riding a pony. The title of her artwork is Rosie, the Pony.   

In the past couple of days, her artwork went back and forth between my daughter and her art teacher. The teacher really liked her artwork and wanted her to win, so she gave some advice to fix some parts.

Today I went to school and submitted her final artwork. The teacher is going to submit hers along with other students’ artworks on next Tuesday.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I have been reading Christiane Northrup’s book Mother-Daughter Wisdom. The author is an OB-GYN, or obstetrician-gynecologist. Through her job, she has experienced and witnessed many baby deliveries.

In her book, she talks about the gender preference in previous generation when baby boys were valued than baby girls. She shared one of her patent’s story. The patient had her daughter for her first baby. When she gave birth to her second baby and they found out the baby was again a girl, the first thing came out of her mouth to her husband was “I’m sorry, honey.”

The author is right on saying our old society, the male‐dominated society, values baby boys more than baby girls. The old society indeed had considered boys as the priority gender over the girls.

I was a bit surprised that was common in America, the country of freedom.

From my personal experiences, I can easily imagine the situation of the old society, the male‐dominated society. 

I was born to a unique family.

The recent ancestors of my paternal family was a famous samurai family. They were the leader of the area. Their castle still exists in our hometown area.

The older ancestors of my paternal family is the historical celebrity; Mr. Sugawara-no-Michizane. My paternal grandmother passed down the fact to my mom on her death bed. He was well known for his brilliant intelligence. He helped the government for their political issues. After he passed away, people have built many shrines all over Japan to enshrine him as a God of learning. The shrines are well known as Tenjin-san.

Because of such great heritage of the family, my paternal family valued a baby boy to pass down their family name.   

My parents luckily had their first baby as a boy.

In those days parents didn’t know the baby’s sex until they are born. When my mom gave birth to my brother as their first baby, she instantly knew her son would be taken away to her husband’s family, not physically but mentally. And her intuition was right. My brother was highly valued by my paternal family and relatives.

That made a clear sense to me, about the reason why I jumped into my mom’s tummy when my brother was only 4 months old.

My mom’s OB-GYN recommended her to abort me, which was a common procedure in those days when the next baby has come too soon. My mom refused the doctor’s recommendation and decided to have me.

While I was in her tummy, my mom would often talk to me to come out as a baby girl. My mom thought her husband’s family would not care for a baby girl.

Having listened to her wish, as my own desire as well, I was born as a girl.

While I grew up, I never got anybody’s expectation for my future life plan, especially from my paternal side family. My brother on the other hand, grew up with a huge expectation from our paternal family and relatives to become a successful man.

***

To be honest, when I was small, I had a complicated feeling and emotion toward the fact. I often wondered why being born as a boy and a girl is so different. I often felt jealous to my brother for being born as a boy.

***

Now that I grew old, I finally accept the fact. I chose to be born as a girl myself.

I consider myself as lucky to be born as a girl. It was actually wonderful to be able to live my life, stress-free and expectation-free from anybody.

In my personal opinion, being born as a girl is not bad at all. It’s great actually. There are so many benefits be born as a girl, and I am enjoying it and loving it.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪