Rebecca Otowa - At Home in Japan
I want to honor my house, the ancestors who kept it up and passed it on, floating it like an ark down the years,
In autumn, cool breezes tantalize back into life a spirit flattened by the sun's tyranny, and curiosity and creativity can flow anew. The high, deep sky, the most pristine blue of the year, is the perfect backdrop for the earthy hues of chrysanthemums and the gorgeous pale orange globes of persimmons.
My soul is steeped in Japanese beauty. It is colored delicate moss green and rich plum purple, vibrant black and stunning vermilion.
An old children's song sums up that dreamy, contented, peaceful, just-going-to-sleep feeling.
The Zen proverb, "In summer we sweat; in winter we shiver," is meant to illustrate the importance of not trying to escape or avoid our present situation. I have learned both the literal and symbolic truths of this proverb in my years in an ancient and drafty house. In summer, we open all the doors, and the deep eaves and porches make the house as cool as a cave when we come in sweating from farm work. In winter-well, we shiver, mostly in the kotatsu or in front of kerosene space heaters.
Every day in the village I meet really old people, in their 80s and 90s, who cheerfully and self-sufficiently accept discomfort and even pain as natural consequences of being alive. They seem to regard their bodies as tools for living in the world, and they use them to the full.
How important it is, indeed, to sweat in summer and shiver in winter: to accept the sand, grit and dirt of life along with the silk and sunshine, and not avoid or reject or resent them as though they were undeserved punishments.
All of us, so many times during our lives, find our fragile roots struggling for purchase in rocky and inhospitable soil. The terrain is unfamiliar; we may at times be without the water of love or the sunshine of divinity to encourage us in our assimilation. What supports us, for a short or long time as measured on this earth, is life itself. The grand outpouring of life, its seamless and abundant flow from moment to moment, is a force so strong we are unaware of it, as the fish is unaware of water. It is this force that overrides the problems and hardships and carries us, strong and true and sure, in the direction of our destiny.
