ChanomiTalk

道端の古い電柱に寄り添うように咲く　黄色いハイビスカス

次々に咲きほこる　ピンクのブーゲンビリア

厳寒の国でお暮らしの方々のこころに　華を！

Recently I was talking with my grandfather and he explained to me about the concept of “Hanamichi”. Literally this phrase means “Path of Flowers” and it means to allow someone that you have defeated or is defeated to have a graceful exit. Instead of bashing or embarrassing an opponent, you allow them to acknowledge defeat and bow out gracefully. This term is relevant in current events because recently the Japanese Government had backed out of agreement with the US Government to relocate a military base in Okinawa. Because this agreement took 13 years to negotiate, the US were a little upset. But instead of accusing the Japanese Government of being wrong and going back on their word, the US has allowed more time to negotiate, and thus the concept of “Hanamichi”. I think this is a practice that more people should adopt.

今日もダウンタウンで大きな木と出会いました。ハワイは雪こそはありませんが、歴史を経て風雪に耐えた太い幹には重厚感があり、枝を広げ、小枝には瑞々しい葉っぱをたくさんつけている。私はそんな木が好きです。椰子の木もひょろひょろと何気なく立っているように見えますが、美しく見えるように、また、上から枯れ枝や実が落っこちてこないようによく手入れされています。ダウンタウンのバス停のそばで機械を使って何人もの作業員が働いていました。

I’ve been married for two years and in those two years every time I go on vacation with my husband we both end up sick. It hasn’t failed yet. Maybe it’s being here in Hawaii because we’ve also lived in Hawaii for the same amount of time. I don’t know what it is, but it can really put a damper on our vacation. We went home for the holidays this past month. We were there for two weeks and half of the time we were recovering from the flu. As it always happens, he got sick first and I fell ill immediately after.  I woke up with 102 degree fever for five mornings in a row and a sore throat bad enough where I could not swallow anything harder than mash potatoes. And my husband wasn’t any better. He had all the symptoms as well. We’ve been home for about a week now and are still trying to recover. I’m easing myself back into my workout routine but it’s a pain. I keep coughing like crazy. I’m glad Hawaii weather, although it’s been chilly the last couple of nights, is nothing like the weather we left back in Texas. It was 26 degrees the day we flew out of Houston and the wind chills made it feel like it was 17 degrees. Of course cold weather didn’t help us recover faster, so I was extremely excited of returning to Hawaii’s tropical weather. Nothing like being home sweet home.