I watched the movie “Eighth Grade (2018)”. It was a good movie, and I liked it.

I don’t understand why it is rated as R. I didn’t find any uncomfortable violent, sexual, or drug scenes at all.

An eighth grader in America is a 13 years old. He/she is a student of a first grade of junior high school in Japan.

As far as I am concerned, I fully enjoyed being as an elementary school student, but not at all being a junior high school student. Entering to a new school as a first grade of junior high school was not fun for me. So, I could resonate very well with the mixed feeling of the main character in the movie.

The main character girl makes her video message and uploads them in Youtube. She doesn’t know who the audience is. She is a bit shy and does not speak up in front of many others. Her only way to speak up her own opinion is in front of a camera.

In her video, she talks like a third person, giving the audience about tips for a certain topic. The biggest fan of her video is herself, maybe.

There are many aspects of this movie resonates with me.

I write a short article (more like a blog, but I prefer to call it as a short article). I don’t know who my audience is. But I keep doing this because I am the biggest fan of my short articles. While writing, I am healed by doing so. By the time of finishing writing, I always get some wisdom from my family spirits through my writing.

One more thing about the movie.

Toward the end, the main character got connected with her new best friend who has been a big fan of her video message. I think it wonderful. I hope a similar event will happen to me too. I hope there is somebody who is a big fan of my short articles, and we will meet in person sometime in the future. I will hold onto the new hope.      

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

IKEA soft toy drawing contest voting started today.

My daughter participates in the contest. If you like her drawing, and if you can, please support her to win the contest.

Here is how you can support.

1) Go to this link: https://info.ikea-usa.com/softtoy/voting/home

2) Search by drawing ID 682742

You will see a drawing “Happy Christmas Bunny” created by “Haruka”. 

3) Click “heart icon” to vote.

4) They will ask your email address. Type your email address and click “submit”

5) Go to your email inbox. They will send you an email verification. Click “verification” and go back to IKEA site.

6) Click “Heart icon” to vote. Now you are done voting.

7) Click “Star icon” to add her drawing as your favorite.

We can vote every day from today to Nov 29, every day. Please vote for her drawing every day, if you can.

(Voting guideline is here)

Thank you for your support.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I went to my daughter’s school. Around this time of the year, the school holds a thanksgiving lunch at cafeteria. Parents can join with a small amount of fee.

Today’s menu included turkey meat, mushed potato, gravy sauce, steamed corn, dinner roll, broccoli, carrots, and pumpkin cake. I enjoyed everything so much. Especially I enjoyed being with many kids.

Every time when I visit the elementary school, I feel comfortable to experience and observe many kids being kind and polite. They greet politely. They give way to adults and visitors. They give a friendly smile.

— I hope old people in this area will learn from younger kids for being kind and respectful to others. If you live around this area, you will know exactly what I mean, right? I should not say much about it.  

After lunch, we participated in the thanksgiving crafts. There were five tables. Each table offered different craft activities. The higher grade kids (7th graders and 8th graders) were the helpers and instructors.

I really enjoyed crafting with my daughter and other kids.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had some types of severe pain in my jar and the deep inside of my ears. The pain started around the beginning of October. As far as I remember, the pain had stayed a couple of weeks.

This morning I thought about that. As of today I am pain free. I don’t remember exactly when the pain went away.

My husband and other local friends told me it was probably due to the changing season. They were right. I guess my body struggled to adjust from extreme heat and sudden coldness.

I am glad we fished the seasonal transition phase. We are officially entered to winter.

I love cold weather. I love especially cold morning, going outside and enjoy seeing my breath, steaming white air.

It feels like a cleansing by brand new fresh air. I am loving it.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning I woke up comfortably.

I had an impressive dream. Even in the dream world, part of me (physical me) knew it represented an economic fortune. I knew my family spirits were telling me to be aware of their gifts and accept them.

I don’t know exactly how I will get some unexpected income. I am not going to buy any lottery or invest anything. I simply will stay being open for any kind of opportunities.

***

We have almost reached to the end of this year. I took a moment and thought about this year.

Thankfully, this year has been easy and peaceful on me and my family. As a matter of fact I have been pretty lucky all this year around.

In the year of 2016 though, we went through lots of hardships and lost lots of our money.

I believe everything is taking a balance.

With the theory, I consider these good lucks as surprise gifts from Universe. I consider them as some types of rewards in honor of my daily efforts; rewards that I didn’t give up on things.

***

So, I interpret today’s my dream as a message from my family spirits, telling me go ahead and enjoy our gifts.

Yes, I am ready to receive any kinds of surprise gifts from Universe without any guilt feeling.

Yes, I am open to receive all the good things and energies. Thank you for all of that!! I am enjoying them fully.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

It is already time for us to switch from cooler to heater. Originally our maintenance guy wanted to switch it by the end of last month, October, but he postponed the switching day for me. He knows my preference; I hate heat and love cold temperature. During these past three weeks, we still had hot days in the daytime. Thus, he let me enjoy the cooler for these past hot days.

Yesterday the maintenance guy called me. He told me he had to switch it yesterday, because the temperature would drop down from today. So, he came to our house and switched from cooler to heater.

Sure enough this morning the temperature dropped down to -1C (30F). I am glad he switched it for us.

***

Today was a federal holiday observed as Veterans Day. My husband is a US Army Veteran. He went to town and enjoyed receiving some gifts from a restaurant and a hair salon.

My daughter and I stayed at home alone. We played together all day. We did a play-hair-salon. And we exchanged a massage session. We watched funny videos and laughed together.

It was a peaceful day for all of us.

Whenever I spend such a peaceful time with my daughter, I feel being blessed. When I was single, living alone in Japan, I spent my days and years lonely. I never thought this kind of peaceful and happy life was waiting for me in the future.

From my experience, I know things will get better. It can be applied to everybody, I believe. If you are feeling lonely or sad, hang in there. Please know everything has been evolving. I promise you things will get better.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

When I woke up this morning, I touched my belly without thinking. I felt my belly has gotten tighter than before.

So I went to the bathroom and looked my naked body in the mirror. I was surprised at the muscular lines in my belly got visible.

Since March 28th of this year, I have continued doing my muscular workout routine almost every day. Yes, I said “almost”. I confess it’s not perfectly everyday. Whenever I was away from my house, I couldn’t keep it up. During the trip, it was hard for me to do my muscular workout on the hotel room floor. Maybe from next trip, I should bring my yoga mat for that. Anyhow, I have done it almost every day for these past seven months.

One of my purposes of the muscular training is to lose weight. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any great improvement in my weight. It fluctuates; going up and down. My current weight is slightly lighter than the first day, by only 2lb (1kg). Other than that, I look the same in appearance. At least I feel so. Nobody hasn’t told me I look slimmer than before.

That being said, I do have some other improvements. I do feel much more energized than the first day. I feel my body got tighter and harder, and stronger than the first day. I like being myself more than the first day.

So, I guess these are the benefits from daily basis muscular training in terms of my feelings.

***

Like that, I started my day thinking about my muscle.

After breakfast, I checked my favorite blogger’s post as usual. There I experienced an interesting synchronicity.

She mentioned about muscle in her today’s post. She says many Japanese people have talked about muscular training and its benefits. The phrase “Muscle doesn’t betray me” has become their trend in Japan.

I like this phrase. It is to the point.

If I were to add some more explanations to this phrase, I would add like this.

“My muscle doesn’t betray me as long as I keep feeding good things to it. My muscle and I are in a mutual relationship; giving and taking in a good balance”.

Same thing can be applied to my writing practice. I have written my short article in my homepage since August 2016, so it has been continued for more than two years.

***

Once in a while we get disappointed for not being praised of our daily efforts, right? But as long as we keep doing our good routine, that kind of muscle does not betray us.

So, let us keep having a faith on what we are doing. All is well, really.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning all of my family overslept. We woke up one hour later than usual. We all were still tired from our recent trip.

I was fine, but my husband and daughter had a sore throat and coughs. They were at the beginning stage of a cold.

I quickly made a homemade miso soup. The miso itself was my homemade. For the ingredient in the miso soup, I added daikon and some other vegetable that are helpful for healing the beginning stage of a cold. I also made an Ume-Sho-Bancha. It is one of the major Yakuzen, traditional Chinese medicine.

My family took some of each and left for work and school.

During their absence in the daytime, I prayed for their safety and health.

***

Everything worked.

When they came back in the evening, their cold symptoms were much improved than this morning.

I am glad they could overcome from a cold with the help of natural medicines, instead of any over-the-counter medicines.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I want to share about the writing practice. At the writer’s workshop, we, attendees, were asked to participate in a writing practice.

We were given a certain topic. We simply kept on writing on our notebook or laptop computer for 5 minutes about the topic.

It was our personal practice. We didn’t need to share it with anybody. We were free to write whatever we wanted to write.

One of the given topics was “the reason why I write”.

Without thinking I started writing.

The reason why I write is because writing heals me.

This is the first line I wrote.

It is true writing heals me.

Once in a while I start writing focusing on some event. When I am mad about the certain event, I start writing without thinking about the conclusion or the final message. But in the process of writing, I am always guided to a divine message.

This is how it works.

By the process of writing, I can see the event objectively. That enables me to analyze the background and the reason why I had a certain emotion and feeling toward the event. By the end of writing for 5 minutes or so, my mind gets clear.

***

I am sure for one thing. Writing a book is one of my life missions I planned before my birth. That is why I still have a strong desire for it. At this moment I honestly don’t know when and how I will publish my book. And that is okay. It will reveal by itself.

All I know is I am strongly protected and guided by my family spirits. They have their best timing and the method for my highest good.

***

This is my solid reason why I can be for sure about it.

In my younger days, I knew I would marry to a Navajo or an Apache, and I would move to America for the latter half of my life. I just knew it would happen. But it didn’t happen in the way I expected.

By the time when I turned to my 30s, I started frustrated about it. I tried and tried, but nothing went as I expected. Toward the end of my 30s, I reached to the point where I completely surrender to my destiny. Then, the things started happening very naturally.

Here I am. I have a Navajo husband and we have our beautiful daughter, living happily in America.

***

I know from my personally experience, things will happen, as we planned before our birth. The important thing is to completely surrender to our higher power.

Thus, I commit myself. I completely surrender about publishing my books to Universe. I know the necessary processes will come to me naturally.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪