This evening I went to my car in order to take some items from the trunk. The key remote did not work.

First I thought the battery of the remote was out, but when I tried to start the engine, it didn’t start. The car battery was out.

I felt lucky that it happened at house, where we were all safe. I felt grateful for it didn’t happen while we were in the long distance trip. I felt being protected.

My husband took the battery out from the engine room, and we went to the local car parts store.

There they offered to charge the battery for free of charge. It took them one hour and half to charge my battery. After being fully charged, they tested my battery. It was all fine. I didn’t need to buy a new battery.

I bought my car in June 2013, so it has been 5 years and 4 months. It was about time for my battery to die. The manufacture says the lifetime of a car battery is about for four to six years.

I am glad my battery was taken care of. It was the right timing before our long distance road trip.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Tonight we attended to the local community’s autumn cerebration. It was held at the fire department.

The fire department sponsored a haunted house. We have known about the haunted house but we had never been there before. Previously my daughter refused to go. She didn’t want to get scared. But this year she changed her mind. She has grown enough to dare the scary challenge.

When we got there, there was a waiting line for the haunted house. The line was not that bad. Maybe just around 30 people ahead of us.

During waiting, it was entertaining for me to observe the people in the waiting line. Most people were dressing their unique costumes.

Among them, there was a huge woman (huge in the width and height) wearing a sexy dress. The back was wide open. No fabrics whatsoever. The woman’s back from the neck to the lower back was totally naked. I was surprised how she could stand this cold weather. It freezing low temperature.

***

The inside of haunted house was well designed. It was like a pitch-dark maze, with a very narrow aisle and an unstable bridge. There were many volunteer actors and actresses who tried to scare us. There were witches, ghosts, zombies, clowns, and some animal people.

They successfully made us screamed a lot.

When we came out, our hair was covered by a handful party streamer strings. I honestly don’t remember when and where we were sprayed.

We all enjoyed the haunted house. I appreciate to the many volunteer people. They sure did a great job to entertain us. Oh, not to mention, my daughter came back with a bunch of candies.     

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Tonight the school held a party for students. They called the party as an autumn fair, instead of a Halloween party.

Students were allowed to wear a costume, but wearing a costume was not required. It is the school’s wise option to do so, for the purpose of not offending anybody. Due to many different religious belief, some people celebrate Halloween with their unique costumes, while other people are against of wearing costumes.    

The party was held at the school gym. The volunteered teachers and faculties created their unique games and activities for kids. The kids were awarded some candies through the games and activities.

My daughter enjoyed the party and received lots of candies.

For me personally, part of me wishes this custom (giving away lots of candies to kids) will somewhat die down, for my daughter’s health and my health. My daughter is so kind that she always shares her candies with me and my husband, and we end up eating candies in this time of the year.

After this candy season, I will do my best to get back to our good habit; no candy in the daily basis.

That being said, after incorporating macrobiotic diet in our life, I have confident that I will be able to get back to our good habit quicker and easier than before.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today I had an appointment with the local thrift store. They scheduled for picking up our two mattress at our house in the morning. I was looking forward to seeing our old mattresses off from our house.

The truck didn’t come to our house in the morning.

I called my husband and mentioned about the delay. His reaction made sense to me the reason why the thrift store’s truck was late.

He doubted the thrift store would take the mattresses because other stores declined to take them.

I asked him to believe this thrift store would happily take our mattresses. The mattresses are in good condition. They would appreciate for our kind donation. I also asked him to have a clear vision about that.

And he did.

Then, I heard the truck sound outside. Their truck came and took our mattresses. They were happy for our kind donation.

***

So, here is a lesson I learned from this experience.

When we create our preferable reality, in case the reality is not only for you but also for somebody else, we need to have the same belief and vision about the reality. If there is somebody who doubts about that, it makes hard to manifest.

The same thing can be applied to other things too.

We should have a preferable future vision regarding the world peace and the natural disaster. When we run into somebody who has a negative belief about our future, let’s at least do something to make the person believe a happy and preferable future. Our little and tiny effort is needed in order to create our preferable future.

Because we are indeed co-creating our reality based on our belief and thoughts. Let’s create our preferable future together.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter reads many books. The school recommends students to read at least 20 minutes a day. Daily reading has been her homework since kindergarten.

She has a good pick on books.

Today she was reading two books. I thought they are great picture books for young readers, so I would like to share them with you.

The book titles are:

I Am Yoga

I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness.

The both books are written by Susan Verde. Her texts are simple but to the point. Very easy to read and follow even for young readers.

I also like the cute illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today our weather was a thunderstorm. We had lots of rain and thunders all day long. It was rare in this time of the year on this area.

The recent weather report news predicted my area (South West region) would have a mild temperature with lots of rain in this winter.

This prediction was made based on the recent situation of the solar cycles along with the zero sunspot activity.

In a timely manner, my macrobiotic instructor shared her own perspective about the current situation in her recent online course. She suggests us to follow and be flexible to our intuition.

I agree with her perspective. Our body knows what we need to eat to adjust to our local environment. We all have great intuition just like other animals and all the other living creatures.

I want to keep being alert and listening to my intuition.

I believe everything is supposed to go well.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had a dental cleaning appointment. During my visit, I usually deal with three different people; a hygienist, an assistant nurse, and a dentist.

I like the hygienist. I have been making a dental clearing appointment with her for these past years. She is a young Latina in her early 30s. She is nice and polite, and good at cleaning. I am always satisfied with her work.

She praised my daily work. She said my teeth and gum were healthy and doing great. I was happy to hear that. I have started using a water floss every day, and it was working well for me.

Then, the assistant nurse came and gave my teeth a final polish and a flossing. She also praised my daily work, saying I have beautiful and healthy teeth and gum. I appreciate for her compliment.

Lastly the dentist came for an overall checkup. He mentioned about one small cavity needs to be fixed. He pointed out my right bottom canine teeth.

He strongly suggested me to make an appointment to fix the cavity as soon as possible. He said cavities cannot be healed by themselves. I didn’t talk back to him, but I have my own perspective regarding a cavity.

I do believe a cavity can be healed. I am saying that, based on my actual experiences.

Right before I moved to America in 2008, I visited the dental clinic. The dentist told me I had three cavities needed to be fixed. Because I didn’t have any pain at all, I didn’t trust him. I followed my intuition and decided not to fix them.

After I came to America, for the first four years, we didn’t have a dental insurance. Vision insurance and dental insurance are optional and not mandatory. So, I did not go see a dentist until four years later.

When I finally had a dental checkup accompanied with a full X-ray in 2012, the dentist did not find any cavities in my mouth.

It can be considered as in two ways. It is either the previous dentist diagnosed wrongly or my cavities were healed by themselves.

In any cases, in my opinion, when you are diagnosed as having a cavity, you should get a second opinion. Or, you should change your diet and lifestyle to a healthier one, and that might heal your cavity by themselves. I believe our body has a self-healing ability.     

***

One good news that I want to update.

As I mentioned in my previous article, I had a severe pain in my jar since the beginning of this month. The doctor checked the gum and the teeth around the area and did not find any issues.

They told me the pain was probably due to some reactions of changing season or sinus allergy. I got relieved to hear that. In fact the pain has been relieving day by day.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My dad is 80 years old. He often tells me he wants to live long. He says it is very interesting for him to witness all the changes in society, lifestyle, and technology. He wants to keep witnessing them.

Indeed he has gone through a lot. He was born before the World War II. He has lived during and after the war. He has witnessed how the government has changed. He has experienced how the technology was built and has been improved. I agree with him; witnessing all the changes is interesting.

As one of the interesting changes, I read somebody’s article about funerals. He mentioned about a drive-through service of funerals. It has already been launched in some rural areas. I think this is a great idea for the people who is hard to walk. I personally want to see the traditional funeral system will be drastically changed into much more simple ones.

Another example of the interesting changes is about the online service of Buddhism monk in Japan. Nowadays there are many companies who offer the various services of monks. Their prices are open and clear, and reasonable. I am supportive with these types of services. Previously the monks’ services used to be complicated. There are many hidden things that we have to consider.

Two more examples come from my personal experiences.

Back in 1995 I got married to my first husband (who is now my ex-husband). Those days it was common for couples to have a super expensive wedding ceremony. We paid $30,000 (about 3 million yen) just for the ceremony. We invited about 100 people to the party. I changed my outfit three times during the two hours ceremony, with different hair styles and different make-ups, done by a professional. Unfortunately, one year later from the huge wedding ceremony, we ended up getting divorced.

This wedding ceremony is one of my regrets in my life. It was a huge waste of money. I should have insisted to go without the luxurious wedding ceremony so that we could have saved the money for the future life.

I am glad to see the current change. Nowadays people are much smarter than those days, so that they have their wedding ceremony in a reasonable price.

Right after the wedding ceremony, my in-law-at-that-time proudly announced me that they bought a small piece of land for their graveyard. They told me I was more than welcomed to be buried with them in the same graveyard. I was stunned. I was 25 years old, just got married. I was too young to think about my dead body in the future. My in-law-at-that-time insisted how important to prepare their graveyard in advance. Preparing a graveyard in advance was common at that time.

Speaking of my afterlife plan, I have a specific desire. My personal desire is not to be buried in a graveyard. I want my dead body to be cremated and the ashes to be scattered to my favorite land. I don’t want to be buried in a graveyard so that I won’t leave any responsibility or guild feeling to my decedents.

Nowadays I’ve heard more people who agree with my desire. My friends agree with me. My mom says the same thing as I do. I think it a good change.

These are just a few examples out of many changes. I hope my dad will live healthy as long as he wants, so that he can enjoy witnessing many more interesting changes to come. I believe his curiosity is the one that keeps motivating him to live. I think it a great thing for him.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Yesterday I received a phone call from one of my acquaintances. It was a shocking news.

This family has many dogs; more than ten dogs. Their favorite one dog stays inside the house, but the remainder dogs stay outside.

The shocking news was about their favorite house dog. While the house dog was outside for doing her business (bathroom), the outside dogs attacked the house dog. The attacking was really bad, to the point where the house dog was almost killed.

The family quickly took the house dog to the local veterinary clinic. The injury was so severe that the local small clinic could not operate the surgery. They needed to bring the dog to the veterinary clinic in the big city.

There, they operated a surgery on the dog. The surgery went well so that the dog would live. The dog had some stitches and a drainage tube. The dog will need to be hospitalized being monitored for three nights.

I felt so relieved that the dog survived for this severe injury and surgery.

This incident made me think of the danger of jealously. Dogs are smart animals. They know what is going on. The outside dogs were so jealous of the house dog to the point where they all hate the house dog.

This is not their first experience for this family. One year ago they had the exactly same situation. They had only one house dog. While the house dog was outside for her business, the outside dogs attacked the dog and killed it. Right after the incident, this family adopted a puppy, which was the house dog being attacked this time.

I feel sorry for the outside dogs. It is understandable for them to feel jealous to the house dog.

I also feel sorry for the two house dogs. One was killed one year ago, and the new one was almost killed this time. It was not their decisions to be the only house dog. They might want to make friends with their own kind. They might want to stay and run around outside with their friends, rather than staying with humans inside of the house all the time.

***

I have been witnessing a similar situation in my neighborhood.

This family used to have a dog and they keep the dog at their backyard. Recently (about three month ago), they brought back a new puppy. It was obvious that all the family members love the new puppy. This puppy stays inside the house. I have seen this puppy wearing a brand new outfit (a pretty sweater or a cute collar). This puppy even has her body hair shampooed and get her nails clipped and polished.

In this three months, I have witnessed their outside dog escaped several times. I have seen this outside dog running away from their house at a crazy high speed. This outside dog probably feels lonely and being abandoned. It is understandable for this dog to desire to run away from this family.

Until they had a new puppy, I never saw this outside dog trying to run away from its family.  

***

I sincerely hope this kind of tragedy will never happen again. It is my humble wish that all the pet masters will treat their pets with equal love so that they won’t need to fight one another. I hope they won’t treat their pets based on their ego and convenience.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

At my daughter’s school, there are two classes in her grade. She used to be one class for the past three years. This year however, my daughter was assigned to another class. It was the principal’s kind offer from some reasons.

Thus, all the classmates in the current class are new to my daughter.

Today my daughter brought back a birthday party invitation from her classmate. This is the fifth one in this school year.

I was a little surprised from these reasons. It has been only 2.5 months passed in this new school year. Also, five birthday invitations out of the total number of 24 classmates is at the high rate.

The weird thing for me is these five classmates are not my daughter’s close friends.

According to some of my American acquaintances, it is common for parents to invite all the classmates for their child’s birthday party. Also it is common to spread the invitation to 30 children and only 5 or 6 children will show up to the party.

This is a new custom from what I have experienced. In my younger days, some of my classmates had a birthday party and invited only a small number of close friends. Once I was invited, I was supposed to attend the party. It was very hard for me to decline the invitation unless I had a reasonable reason.

Both customs have merits and demerits.

Here, it is easy for us to decline the invitation. In most cases the child cannot walk to the party and they need to ask a ride from their parents. That can be a reasonable reason for them to turn down the invitation.

In Japan, they can celebrate their real friends’ birthday party with only a small number of friends, and that will strengthen their friendship.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪