Ha for planning

As I was sitting for yoga today I couldn't figure out what I was going to do first. I didn't know where I was going to do my yoga as the place where I currently do yoga is quite small and I felt in confusion. Upon contemplating my situation I ended up doing my Tai Chi practice and then the quote that found me a couple of days previously found me once again.... "we plan... god laughs" How many times in life do we need to be reminded of this and yet I always hear him laughing. Everyday I try to plan out the details for my life and yet I always hear the laughing in the background and in the end I can't help but laugh as well. Everyday seems to work on a different beat and a new beat and I think the Earth is learning for the first time as well and that make sense as astronomers have dutifully noted how the Universe is expanding. As another favorite quote eloquently reads "expectation should be replaced with playfulness".... and the world is very playful indeed. We get caught in the planning and that is what can make decision making so difficult because we have this preconceived notion on how things will fall together. In reality even if we take the simplest processes everything happens with being playful. The seed and plant knows this as the fruit tree drops its fruit in the soil knowing that somehow a new fruit tree will grow or maybe it won't. I constantly have to be reminded by this, and yet it is always an amusing realization. However, this doesn't mean we shouldn't plan I believe. To the contrary.. we should plan... it's just important to laugh when we end up surprised

今日ヨガ座ってみながら全然一番最初のこと決まってできません。私の部屋の幅は狭くてだからどこやって悩んだも頭は混雑。あたゆまに状態考えと（対置）決まった始めった。

Effort

Everyone of us in life tries to improve themselves in the way that they see fit. Some do so by eating the right foods or by getting exercise. There are a myriad range of possibilities on how to go about this. I personally have focused on the ways of meditation, yoga and lately Tai Chi to improve and best reach my potential. What I have found lies at the basis of these practices is that they all require discipline and dedication. We all need something that tells us at the end of the day that we have done something worthy with the day that was given to us. Each day is a gift and although that is sometimes hard to realize... it is. By doing and completing the task 100% to completion we are doing more then simply checking off another activity. We are in essence practicing gratefulness, which lies at the center of human happiness and is a stepping stone to each one of us reaching our full potential. Effort is the reward in the end because it proves that we loved being here today so much that we we're willing to do something that was hard to do. We are showing compassion for life. I believe there are many ways to show compassion. We can show kind acts to people or simply and exercise it with the types of food we choose to consume. Each one of us strives for purpose and looks to try to be the most productive with the day that is given to us. That is the reason that coffee is a huge selling product. The immediate effect is 30 minutes of an undivided attention feeling and yet this state is easy to obtain and thus in the long run is rarely rewarding. What we find the most rewarding is effort. Many are starting to become aware of the huge benefits of fasting and it is a practice which has been used for thousands of years and this practice requires effort and is a challenge and yet when we finish the race we feel good and that feel good feeling spreads throughout us and manifests into physical accomplishments. We are able to have good creativity.. we are able to focus. Effort is the non-physical mental feeling that translates to physical realities. It is interesting that the most beneficial parts of the practices that I practice are the non-physical elements that are contained within them. For Meditation everything is non-physical as through the breath I just try to relax more and more with every breath. For Yoga it is the non-physical feeling of the dance of life as movement becomes effortless and yet full of effort and for Tai Chi there is the whole concept of imagining a sphere and through imagination the physical sphere manifests... or does it. These days we are connecting more and more with the non-physical in order to put meaning to our everyday lives and we find that these non-physical processes require lots of effort and yet reveal the most reward. Coffee then turns to a mere taste and food turns to mere taste. The true power is held within. As John Denver likes to say as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vw92nkIXXA 

I find my self In a Place

Soup Bowl

Fighting everyday because you've seen all around the world

Soup Bowl's steam and the sound of silence hits your soul

See that everyone is living onto another day

See that the cause of satisfaction is a moments grace

Sliding door open, waiting on the call of the sound

Breeze coming in slowly covering the town

Gee what's your place you never will really know

All you see growing around you is the constant growth

A drum beat comes so close to the heart

Picking up the pieces you see the fire start

Blink once more and it's the sparkle hitting the tide

Pale blue water hits as the waves collide

What you find, what you want to see

And you know while sitting the middle of a round room

That the sound that startles in the sea

Is the scenery calling in the Steinway Piano

And the keys that shatter across the dark

And the sweetness that swoons around the foray of the room

Making little sound

Except the whispers of the dark piano calling across the night

Calling in the night, Calling in the night

In the soup bowls reflection I see my face

Perfectly aligned in this ring of space

Filling in all the candles across the world

See the the horizon line stretch the coast

Hazy fields wash in the dark

swishing back and forth like paper following the stars

And the first star comes at the blink of the night

Comes right in makes the feeling right

What you find what you want to see

And you know while sitting in the middle of a round room

That the sound that startles in the sea

Is the scenery calling in the Steinway Piano

And the keys that shatter across the dark

The sweetness that swoons around the foray of the room

Making little sound

Except the whispers of the dark piano calling across the night

Today is Monday

Snow Yuki Good!

The Coast is freezing now. I rise in the morning and my breathe hovers in the air for some moments. Today the sun shines brightly. My thoughts have become gentle lately. Classes are over for this year. I taught my last elementary class yesterday, singing Christmas Carols and playing guitar. I look forward to Christmas and the holidays, making rendezvous with good friends and celebrating a holiday centered on the concept of giving and being together and of course the color red with white. My English teacher taught me something new about Christmas the other day. I will ask you if it's true. Is Santa Claus Red and White because of the Coca Cola Company? I can't imagine a green Santa, but pre 1940's that was supposedly the color.
We decorated the English room with Christmas decorations. I tried to draw a picture of the inside of my house at Christmas as well, which went over quite well . There are 2 songs that seem to stick out as favorites among the Japanese. Everyone seems to request Mariah Carey's Christmas Carol and Jingle Bells. I know Jingle Bells really well. I'm excited to head home for the holidays and ski. The snow here is just starting to fall and that means that powder is in recipe books. Pow Pow Pow Pow. I ask you this what is snow??!!! We can say what rain is. You go outside and water sprinkles on you, but snow is different. When you walk outside and hear snow falling it is a gentle sound almost like silence.

There is a pace when snow falls
And many people feel it should be a bell
A soft bell with a kind sound, high-pitched, happy, yet quiet as well.
And when you focus on the sound the snow does really make
And do not take a rustling step
You witness this soft ,almost silence
Especially if your smokey breath you retract as well.
It's just you and the soft chimes singing of the times.

Here's a new one for ya

Picking the Vegetarian food style has it's challenges when living in Japan or where I am. I also feel secrets are revealed. Lately the navigation setting on my phone has pointed my life in a confident direction literally. I love looking at my little blip on my screen as I navigate around Earth now I'm here..... and now I'm here... and now I'm on a train.... and now I'm in my car... and now I just hickup'd.... and now I just Far..... we'll let that one rest. While in Tokyo my new found love of exploration has recently been Vegetarian Restaurants. After checking into a Hostel in Asakusa, which is close to Ueno and called the Asakusa Annex, I asked the friendly staff where I might stab some local vegetarian delectable s. Luckily one of staff members was vegetarian herself and recommended a place called Pei Pe Saitan. The dining establishment was supposedly located in Kinshicho, a close distance away "a new adventure says I" with my new map finding tools at the ready I struck off for the location. Kinshicho station was estimated to be about a 30 minute walk from where I was and I was in the mood for a walk. The night was cool and narrow streets crisscrossed this way and that. Traffic lights blinked from red to green to yellow as there were few cars and few people on the streets. I reached the train tracks and turned left and found myself on a lively street. Kinshicho station was full of people. I watched a really good robot dancer in front of the station for 2 minutes before continuing my search for Pei Pei Saitan. Pei Pei Saitan was seemingly a dream as it was not showing any signs of being present in the actual world according to my Google sources on my hand held apparatus. Feeling a bit deflated I did a search to see if there were any veg like establishments in the area and inflated again when I found there was a "famous place" called "It's Vegetables" Yes that was the name and interestingly enough it was in the same vicinity of where my Pei Pei Saitan place was supposedly-- a change of name says he...... a slip of the mind says I..... and so I found myself on a Saturday at about a little before 7 entering a little food place excited about the prospect of vegetables. The place was cheery and intimate and I sat down at a little table and a friendly older man gave me a menu. At first glance it looked as if it was just a regular restaurant as I saw many different selections, but upon further inspection all the dishes were made using vegetable products and suited both the vegan and vegetarian fan. The food was delish could have fooled me. Maybe I was fooled it is possible that everything was real meat in which case all cows and pigs of world I apologize, but It was tasty and the plan is to venture again. I had not been seated more then 5 or 10 minutes when someone joined my table and we were introduced. The restaurant required that kind of open perspective as there were few tables available in the cozy space. We hit it off. She was a vegetarian too and had been so for 12 years. It was great practice for my Japanese test that next day. She had a daughter living in Canada that played the Violin and she herself was a piano teacher. What followed was a pleasurable te to te and a sharing of ideas and thoughts over cuisine. I eventually joined another table as I was invited and listened about how one of men at the the table was a shipper of goods and had worked in Indonesia for the last 20 years of his life. His family had traveled with him and they had thus navigated the greater part of the world. It was a great story and I felt humbled by his experiences. My Japanese test was that next day so I retired to bed early, found my way home first of course! and wondered what JLPT would be like the next day.