Who moved my cheese

The public library of Ogasawara has a very little collection of English books. I found a book titled Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, the other day and I brought it home with me. Read it before I went to bed and got so much from it. I really wanted my partner to read it so I could talk to him about the book. It uses analogies such as the maze in the cheese being life's journey, the cheese being your true desires or goals and the two mice being the ones who just went with their instincts. It made me think about my cheese and how often it changes and how often I have a fear to leave comfort and go to the maze. 

I recommend it :)

Our first eggs!

 

When I saw that one of our chickens was sitting still, I just thought she was depressed, bullied by the others but then (just like a light bulb switched on!) I decided to check under, and voila, I found our first 3 eggs. My heart stopped, I had been waiting for this day all winter and I thought it wouldn't happen until spring. I should have realized that if the rooster had started to show signs of puberty it was time for the hens to do so.

I felt so proud to have them at home. The warmth of the chickens filled me with comfort and inexplicable joy. Such a simple thing in life and to me it was a feeling I would treasure for life. Brownie, MarshMellow and Cafe con leche are the artisans of these beautiful eggs.

Thank you chickens for this wonderful experience!

The swing of community

These are my neighbor's kids. They are both adorable and sweet. They play all day outside in nature, in mud, on rainy days, in the house, with bicycles, with toys, with whatever makes them happy. How innocent it is when you don't have any walls keeping you from opening your full heart to others. I see this in between them two lovely kids. I hope they can share much more of life's joys and keep their hearts open for long.

Nature of Ogasawara

My favorite adjective these days

SUNNY 

I never thought of how the sun or better say, the clouds, could have such a large effect on my day to day mood. It has become a habit to check the weather forecast. I am not sure if this is good or bad? but it has such a huge impact that I better know what is awaiting for me the coming days. It has been cold and cloudy for the past 4 days and it will continue all week. So, I know that my solar shower will be cold for a whole week! and I know that my house with no heater will be cold! and I know that my clothes won't dry, which means less socks to warm my cold feet. I know that I should have solved all this issues to make my life much easier to live and to be able to focus on other things but every time I think of fixing it I think "spring is just around the corner", this positiveness is what has brought me into this light depression. I have to be more realistic. 

Anyways.... What I wanted to say, was that sunny is my favorite adjective! 

The Navy Generation Documentary Project

  About the film

About the film

"The Navy Generation Documentary Project is a film in progress about the experience of a group the Japanese refer to as Ōbeikei (“Westerners”), or descendants of the original Bonin Islanders, who live on Chichijima in the Ogasawara/Bonin Islands about 1000 km (625 mi) south of Tokyo or 270 km (169 mi) north of Iwojima, of World War II fame. These latter day descendants of the settlers, sailors, explorers, and shipwrecked men and women from Europe, America, and various islands across the Pacific who, in 1830, settled on what had previously been uninhabited islands claimed by Japan, Great Britain, and the United States bear physical features that attest to their multiethnic lineage. A minority, though, in their homeland since the 1870s when Japanese administrators and immigrant groups began arriving in great numbers, the original Bonin Islanders were pushed ever more to the background and many eventually intermarried with the new arrivals."
More information on this website.

Pedro

Our rooster just learned how to cock-a-doodle- do!! EARLY IN THE MORNING!!! 

home sweet home

Happy days!

Yes, a feeling of peace. 

The moon is coming to its fullest. 

I can feel also that my heart is coming to my fullest. 

The moon gives light at night. 

I feel I can also give light. 

The Island is cold, the days tend to be cloudy and every day is still containing some sort of magic. The crisp nights and the hot teas make it a better winter. Most of our tourists in this season are elderly people. On my last day of work I bumped into some people which homes were in Fukushima but have had to evacuate since the radiation has reached their places. Now, they live in the evacuation homes but the winter is a bit hard on them, so they decided to have 15 degrees more warmth on their bodies and came to the Island. I hope they can get their homes and lives back.

My garden enemy

The rats. 

Yes, they are cute, in fact, they are not rats, they are mice. 

They look sweet and naive but they eat every single attempt of mine to growing something. 

These are my 2 new anti-rat experiments. 

I know that we are all living beings and we will do all we can to survive, therefor it is understandable what the rats have to do in this case. I also want to do the same, and even though it is really unnecessary because I can just go to the supermarket and buy vegetables, how do I really know what that farmer is doing to avoid pests? That farmer might be having to pour chemicals all around his farm! 

I am taking responsibility for the food that my body will take and try to be conscious and grateful for the hard work it takes to grow things and the long time it takes to grow and... the patience you need to adapt to the environment I am surrounded. 

uff... 

And so, I must finish my project because so far, even the chickens were smart enough to get in them!!!

patience.. and knowledge...