Perseverence

It’s been relatively cold this winter in Tokyo.  It always seems cold to me I guess, but we have had a couple of months when the temperature hasn’t risen  much above 40° (F). It doesn’t get much below freezing either, but with wind and rain that can be a miserable temperature for a transplanted Floridian. And like Florida summers it sometimes seems to go on for a really unreasonable amount of time.

So, being basically an optimist, I am always on the lookout for change.  Today I was surprised by the sight of evidence that winter will end and spring will come. The plum tree is on the side of the building facing the alley and when I went to throw something into the trash, I saw two blossoms had opened, and many more are about ready to burst.

When I was researching kamon to put in my Japanese Memory Quilt I read somewhere that the plum blossom is a symbol of perseverance because it blooms when it is still winter. I liked that idea so much, I decided I would make block with a plum blossom kamon in the quilt.  It reminds me that I need to persevere; flower when it still seems to be winter, spring will surely come.

No, I didn't get lost, I've just been busy!

After two weeks of fairly constant Guest Home work I realized I hadn't done a blog post for nearly two weeks.  That's no way to keep the readership interested. The other part of that is I attended a new (to me) English Circle today and invited participants to take a look at my blog.  Well, who wants to see a two week old blog entry?

So, where was today's meeting? Narashino City. One of the IVIS members who I met some years ago on the bus trip to Yokohama, I believe, invited me to come to speak to this other group he belongs to in his home area. Their format is quite different. The speaker has an hour to fill and then after coffee break there is a Q and A time.  Since I had been asked on relatively short notice, and this was a new group, I drew on something I had already prepared and expanded it a bit.  I took my "To Everything There Is A Season" wall hanging and after giving a brief history of my travels to and from Japan over the last 12 years I told them about my "Japanese Memories." 

They were a lovely responsive group and took the lesson on the proper pronunciation of the word "Quilt" in good stride. They also stayed with me in my explanation of the block I call "My Japanese Family Name" and made the jump from Andoh to Andoh san to Anderson eventually.

I will admit I was apprehensive, but I ended up having a really good time.

Thank you for inviting me, Narashino City English Circle!