"One thing at a time"

I felt that it was appropriate to post this video here since not all my friends and relatives are on another popular community website. We hope that you will enjoy this piece, Bring the Torch Jeannette Isabella arranged with Rustles of Spring by Sinding.  No matter where you are and under what circumstance you find yourself in this year, may the blessing and the unchanging love from above embrace your entire family.  We wish you and your family Merry Christmas.  P.S Words can not explain what music does to my soul/spirit/heart or whatever it is that is created within me. Music simply uplifts me when I need a lifting, infuses me with new energy when I need the simple tug to keep going,  fills me with the simplest but precious joy and soothes my soul with pure melody that is almost heavenly.  I feel quite limited with my own vocabulary to describe just what I feel when I have the opportunity to listen to those musicians who performs with such dedication. I never personally achieved that ...

I can think of a friend after friend who had a significant loss in recent years or recent months. Our Holiday can be a time that brings back the warmest memories of all the special moments, but at the same time, our Holidays can bring back the most painful or sorrowful thoughts to us. The reminder of the definite absence of your loved ones are never felt deeper than the time of the holiday season. I think of my dear friend in Japan who lost her first born to a condition not consistent with life some years ago. Then, I remember the tough fight fought by a sweet friend who succumbed to an aggressive cancer a month before Christmas only a few years ago. Or another family mourn the death of their youngest one who perished unexpectedly leaving the legacy that is irreplaceable. Humanly speaking,  it is very hard to imagine what would possess anyone, even God to send his only son to die for others.  Because we know the pain of the loss human heart feels, it is unbearable to imagin...

I had this image of school children walking to school with just a small messenger bag with a notebook (I mean small laptop).  I am talking about lunch bag being the heaviest item the kids carry to school.  But the reality is that, small children are seen hauling heavy backpack with their shoulder bent forward slightly in response to the strong pulling they feel from the weight of heavy books. My son is not an exception for he is not the toughest built sort of a kid and some days, I know he has difficulty lifting his backpack to put it on his back. I am strongly considering a rolling sturdy backpack to give him for Christmas if I can find one I like.  But the image I saw of kids going to school without a backpack is probably not far away in the future. For their developing frame, it may be a helpful thing but why did I think about this?   I am seeing more people reading books on Kindle when I am in the air. Although, I have not seen the new one coming out by Barnes and Noble called, Noo...

                                                                                 I enjoy all things beautiful. But beautiful could come in so many shapes, designs, sounds, and colors. I am blessed, truly, to have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, hands to feel , palate to taste, and soul to enjoy what this earth calls magnificent and beautiful. But, I especially enjoy the beauty of a landscape blanketed with snow. I know to some, each season is associated with events and may bring back memories that are joyous, sorrowful and of course everything in between. It seems that snow has been on my trail as far as my faint and vague memory can trace back to the years past. Perhaps, it is because of the two years I spent in Wisconsin during the two years my father did his work?. We were surrounded by a winter landscape the entire duration of the season. My regular activity involved sledding down the snowy hill behind our home with neighborhood children or my parents. I vividly remember the s...

It is December 9th, 2009 in Japan already. My mother was born, Dec 9th, 1933. I am very grateful for all her effort and sacrifices she made to raise my brother and I. It is a very special time to reflect and remember how precious it is that she was born and how fortunate I am that I was born as her daughter 33 years later. The 4th photo is the home where my mother was born. She is held by her mother in front of their home that my grand father designed. It is located in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo. My grandmother's portrait is the last one on the left of this paragraph. She was a model, I heard, primarily because she was so tall for her generation (but I am taller than her) and she was quite beautiful. She never sought out to become a model, of course, she was quite a revolutionary character those days so she stood out. She used to tell me that she was one of the first woman in Kyoto, Japan who began regularly wearing western clothing, or ride a bike in public, or go to college. It did not bo...

Vaguely heard the vibration from my Blackberry a few times during the night and saw several e mail messages from Japan waiting for me. One, I checked right away, since it was from the editor of one of the intensive care medical journal that asked me to write an article. They sent me back the first edited draft last night and I had managed to review it immediately to reply. So, the second draft is back for review again. I checked but I went back to bed. So, that is sitting there for me to reivew right now. It is going to be published in the Jan issue of this magazine. Wish the content was not in Japanese so I can post it. I wrote about the quality of care issues and quality of life issues as two main pillars to provide excellent care that is also satisfying to the patient. These last two monthts, I produced several long and short articles for 5 different journal sources. One was in English. Just 4 days ago, I also the finished the final editing of article that I wrote for another journ...

Yeh, it was that kind of a day. But then you look at others who have issues that I would rather not have. Like a family just recently lost their two hour old newborn, or rather unhealthy woman who could not stand 10 minutes in line at the post office without panting and moaning audibly, or others who are in the middle of family health, financial and other crisis.  My life seems quite uneventful when I see all the complexity of life experienced by many others. So, I do not mean to bore you with any of this normal life events that I experience day to day.   Post office was chaotic today. Well, I spent about 15 minutes filling out the customs documents to be submitted with the airmail packages before I could get in the long line.  I learned that for the security reasons, post office has implemented new steps of recording who is sending what to where inputted in the system at the counter when they receive package from customers for international mailing. Well, it used to be, they weigh, ...