In this past week, every morning when I opened the door to the back yard, I saw a white pigeon. It is always the same one. I feel the pigeon is female from its gentle and soft demeanor.

I still clearly remember the day when I saw her for the first time. It was about a week ago.

She was sitting on the cinder block I put on the ground to stabilize my hanging station.

Normal birds will fly away when I get close to them. Or, they either will fly away when I open the door. But this white pigeon stayed there even when I came very close to it. I stood right next to the pigeon.

I started worrying about the pigeon. I thought I should talk to her.

I asked her “hey, Ms. Pigeon, how are you doing? Why you don’t fly away from me? Are you hurt by any chance? Did you get injured in your wings and that is why you cannot fly?”

Weird enough, she seemed to being listening to me. She tilted her small head toward me.

I felt she replied to me “no I am not hurt. I can fly.”

Then, she flew normally in front of me, and porched at the gazebo bar, which is some feet away from the cinder block.

I talked to her again, “well I am glad you are not hurt. You like staying in my back yard?”

She flew back to the cinder block again, which was just beside of me, seemed to be replying to me “yep.”

***

Since that day, almost every day the pigeon stayed at my back yard, at my laundry hanging station or my gazebo bars areas.

***

I introduced her to my family. My husband said maybe the pigeon was planning to lay her eggs somewhere. But we could not find any eggs nor nests. My daughter named her as “Banana.”

***

Today when I went outside, I saw Banana sitting on my hanging station. I also saw two dots on my bath mat. They were the bird’s poo. I looked at Banana and asked her if she did this to my bath bat. Again, she seemed to be listening to me. I told her showing the bath mat, “please don’t do this anymore. This is a bath mat and we wiper off our feet after taking a bath.”

She turned her little head toward the side, as if she felt embarrassed what she did.

Her gesture was so cute that I could not stop laughing. I told her “I forgave her but make sure not to do this anymore”. She listened to me without flying away from me.

***

By the way we have a family of lizards in our back yard too, since last year. My daughter named them as “Push-up”, “Flower”, and “Mutton Stew”. We believe that Push up is the dad, Flower is the mother, and Mutton Stew is their child.

We are sharing our back yard with other living creatures.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In this past week I had been thinking about my next acupuncture appointment. I had felt like I should cancel it for now.

This morning when I woke up, the very first thing popped up in my head was to cancel my next appointment.

I don’t remember my dream of this morning, but maybe I was discussing with my family spirits about that. And we came to a conclusion that I won’t need any more acupuncture appointments at this moment.

Please don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong in acupuncture. The acupuncture does work. As for me, the series of five acupuncture treatments triggered my good health. I feel it is time for me to try something new to accelerate my good health. Also, I do feel the necessity to go to a new acupuncturist as a second opinion.

So, I followed my intuition and contacted my acupuncturist, asked her to cancel my next appointment. I felt so good. I felt much lighter after that.

I still have some more herbal tea that my acupuncturist prescribed for me. The tea will last for another two weeks or so.

After the tea runs out, I want to try out yakuzen. I learned some yakuzen recipes in my macrobiotic courses and books. Yakuzen is the Chinese herbal medicine dishes.

I am planning to try to take Umesho-bancha and Azuki-cha to cleanse my blood system.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today we went to the local fair. It was held at the big park located to our next city.

We all had a fun on their attraction rides. We rode a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, a fun slide, an obstacle course, and a merry-go-round.

It was actually my daughter’s first time to enjoy so many rides. While she was smaller, she would get scared to the carnival rides.

When we were about to leave, we saw a booth sponsored by the local home center store. The worker offered one flower plant to my daughter. She chose a white flower.

When the worker handed the plant to my daughter, she asked my daughter to take good care of the plant. I already knew she would do so.

My daughter is gifted in growing plants. When she waters them, she would talk to them, praise their beauty, and wish them to have a nice day. They are her tips to take good care of her plants.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Five years ago we bought a car. I personally don’t like buying anything with loan payments. So, we were planning to buy the car with cash.

The car dealer, however, insisted that we should use their auto loan program. They had a campaign at that time. It was an auto loan for 63-months with zero percent APR. He mentioned it was a great way to build our credit score.

Until then, I didn’t know anything about the credit score system in America. Here in this country, they have a very strange system in the credit score. You will need a high credit score for a huge amount of purchase such as a house. Your credit score affects your mortgage rate.

Now the tricky part is how to build your credit score. If you always buy something with cash, you will never built a high credit score. In order to build a high credit score, you need to buy something with using the loan payments.

Here are some examples. I never bought anything with loan payments by then, so that my credit score was extremely low. On the other hand, one family of my friends have very high credit score. It was because the husband and the wife constantly buy something with loan payments, even for a low price.

Taking these facts into our consideration, we agreed to buy the car with the loan payments.

***

Today I received a letter from the loan company. It was a notification that my car loan payment was matured.

I was surprised at how quickly our days went by. It has been 63 months passed since we bought our car.

I felt great to reach at the finish line for this long run payments.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Somebody once advised me to bring a whole bunch of toothpicks and Q-tips from Japan, as the quality is much higher than that of other countries. Thus, every time I went back to japan, I bought many of them and brought them back to my house. I’ve never used toothpicks made in America until now.

My daughter is under the process of her teeth being replaced from baby teeth to adult teeth. It is helpful for her to use a toothpick to get rid of leftover foods stuck between her teeth.

Recently we have used up all the toothpicks I brought from Japan. So, I bought a box of toothpicks at the local grocery store.

When I came back home and opened the box, I was shocked at the cheap quality of the toothpicks. No offense please; this is just my personal opinion though. When I used it, I felt like I am a twig from my yard. It is easily broken into several pieces.

Most of Japanese products are user-friendly. When I lived there, I took everything for granted. Once I am away from their products, I have started appreciating their user-friendly and sophisticated products.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter attended at the art club. It is one of the club activities after school. The club instructors are volunteers from the school teachers.

This is her third year to attend the club. The art teacher really likes my daughter not only for her kind and polite personality but also for her artistic talent.

Today was the first club day of this school year. On the first club day, they always have a meeting with everybody to discuss what kind of art project they want to try.

This year the club became a huge group as they had as many as 30 attendees.

Before the meeting, the art teacher asked my daughter to become her secretary. My daughter was asked to stand up in front of the group with the teacher. Whenever somebody spoke up his/her request of art project, my daughter wrote it down on the white board.

When she came back home, she told me how proud she felt being as a secretary. Since my daughter’s dream career is to become a teacher, she liked her new experience very much. I am glad she enjoyed being a secretary.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today my new macrobiotics online course has started. This course continues for one year. Each class will be published online each month, I think.

In the first class, the instructor shared the technique to check our blood flow and lymphatic flow.

You can check your blood flow by using your palms. Place your palms together. With keeping your four fingers (except for your thumb) attached, try to separate your lower bottom hands. If you can bend your fingers and your lower bottom palms at 90 degree angle, your blood flows smoothly. If you can’t, you will need to work on cleansing your blood.

As for checking your lymphatic flow, pull your thumb downward toward your inner forearm by using your other sided thumb. If you can attach your thumb to your inner forearm, your lymphatic system is fine. If you can’t, you should focus on cleansing your lymphatic system.

I could not pass both of these tests. Thus, I need to work on cleansing both of my blood system and lymphatic system.

On the other hand, my daughter passed these tests easily. I praised her for her good health.

I think she was very happy to be praised by me. She kept on showing her hands doing these tests to me, so many times until she fell asleep in the night.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

As I mentioned earlier, I have been studying macrobiotics. In addition to the online course, I have started reading several books about macrobiotics.

I thought it interesting that the people who had contributed to spread the teaching of macrobiotics are Japanese, but they are known as their different names in foreign countries.

Macrobiotics is introduced to many people by a Japanese man, Yukikazu Sakurazawa. He contributed to introduce the theory not only in Japan but also in foreign countries. He is well known as George Osawa for foreigners.

One of his successors is Michio Kushi. He and his wife Aveline Kushi moved to America and they contributed educating it in America. At first I thought Aveline was an American woman, but today I found out she was a Japanese woman. She was born with the name Tomoko Yokoyama in Japan. After she moved to America, she changed her name as Aveline.

Now that makes sense to me. I am reading her recipe book. In the book, she uses s variety of Japanese vegetables and ingredients. She also introduces the recipe of ohagi and kinpira, which are the traditional Japanese foods.

All her recipes are very simple. Her simple recipes reminded me of my late-aunt who used to cook foods for us in my childhood days. I wish I could have eaten her homemade foods again.

I guess the situation in their ages should be different from that of my age. Although the major Japanese foods such as soy sauce and miso are available at the local grocery stores nowadays, the other vegetables and ingredients are still not available. I wonder how she could get Japanese vegetables and ingredients such as daikon, shiitake mushrooms, burdock, mochi, kombu, and kuzu in America in her ages.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

At the school bus stop, there are some parents waiting for the bus with their children and grandchildren. The adults love chatting. They are always chatting with the other adults. I never saw any adults waiting for the bus quietly.

On the other hand, my daughter and I like to be quiet. We usually wait for the bus, slightly away from them, so that I don’t need to join them chat.

This morning one old man came close to me and started chatting with me. It was rare for him to do so. I have talked with him from time to time. He is a grandpa of two granddaughters. Since his daughter (their mother) has a job, it is his duty to escort his granddaughters to the bus stop every morning and afternoon.

He started talking about the owner of the property next to the bus stop. There is a huge property which becomes a huge junkyard. There are so many junks such as cars, trucks, trailer houses, kitchen sinks, gas tanks, and bed mattresses. They have been there, being abandoned, for many years.

The huge junkyard makes the area dangerous. The area can be a good place to hide for wild animals, criminals, or illegals. In addition to that, the area makes the neighborhood look poor. It lowers the land cost of the entire town.

The neighbors are mad at the owner and warned him to clean up the area, but the owner did not listen to their warning. Thus, the neighbors sued the owner. I have heard about the lawsuit several years ago.

The old man roughly reminded me about this case. Then he informed me of the owner’s death of two weeks ago.

I was listening to him talking on and on. Nothing bothered me, until he spat out with his contempt about the owner. He said “That Indian!”         

I could not ignore the word.

Without knowing, I instantly asked him back raising my voice, “what did you say? Did you mean Asian Indian or Native American?”

Then the bus came, so that our conversation was interrupted. He didn’t answer my question. He is an old man, so he didn’t notice that I raised my voice.

We wished each other to have a nice day and departed to our own houses.

While I was walking back home, I started laughing quietly by myself.

I thought to myself “oh my god, I still react to White people calling us Indians!“ I am glad I didn’t punch him in the face, which I almost did. It is my natural reaction.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

A couple months ago, our neighbor started having three puppies in their back yard. Since their house is located on the street, on the way to the bus stop, all the children started petting them. My daughter and I are one of them.

All the three puppies are friendly. They are always happily wagging their tails and come to us. All of them look like always smiling.  

The three puppies are two Miniature Pinscher, a black one and a brown one, and one white Golden Retriever. My favorite is the Golden Retriever. I cannot tell the exact reason, but I am drawn to this puppy.

Every time when I see their golden retriever puppy, it looks glowing to me. It is like one movie scene where a boy meets his ideal girl whose hair blowing in the wind.  

***

This evening while I was taking a walk with my family, we run into the neighbor with the puppies. We started chatting on the street.

The neighbor started talking about the puppies. The two miniature pinschers belong to his daughter. She got them for her birthday gifts. As for the golden retriever, he got it from his friend for free of charge. According to him, the friend still has some more puppies at home and is looking for somebody who can raise them.

The neighbor knows I love the golden retriever puppy, because I always pet him on the way to the bus stop everyday. He turned to me, and asked me “you want him?”

I knew he was not teasing me. I knew he was seriously asking me if I want to take him.

My heart started pounding. I thought to myself, “Of course I want him!!!”

I looked at my husband and my daughter. I knew they also wanted to have the puppy as much as I do.

But we are still renting a house. The lease contract says “no pets”. Besides, once we have a dog, it will restricts our vacation. We are still a young family and want to go to vacation freely. For a long vacation, especially a vacation with an airplane, we will need to find somebody to take care of our dog. I know it will be sad from my experience. We had our dog for 11 years in Japan. Every summer when we went for a family vacation, we needed to bring our dog to the pet hotel. It was sad for everybody.

These thoughts run through my mind. I answered to the neighbor that I would love to, but we can’t have him at this moment. I mentioned him the reasons. He understood.

Just thinking about having a dog made me happy, even though it was just a thought. We will eventually have our dogs once we bought our house. Later years in my life. I look forward to it.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪