I had way too many tabs open and a book review happened

[Written yesterday, but I ran out of time to finish it off and post it.]

I'm having an exceptionally difficult time concentrating on anything today...part of that is that it is my birthday and I always struggle conceptually with that—it always throws me off balance for 24 hrs! I feel like maybe you should stop celebrating that once you become an adult (or perhaps by 25 or something). We don't have much planned, indeed it was going to be a usual work day for us both. But David has had a sore throat and minimal vocal endurance since Friday, and this is his third day home. I'm just not used to him being home during the week (when it isn't a school holiday) and it throws me off balance! 

Ice cream cake and my birthday present:
eight bulbs in bloom

Our plans were (and still are) to go out for dinner and have ice cream cake afterwards. Simple, easy. With no family around there isn't any need for anything else. I did think about taking a few hours out of the office to ride to my favourite park. It would be perfect as the sakura trees are all blooming, but alas it's drizzling and cold...in fact it's been raining almost constantly for the last week, barring Sunday. So not a great day to be out at all.

So, instead I'm sitting at my desk with way too many tabs open—on all my devices, and in my head—and I'm not achieving anything. (In my defence, I did get our prayer letter for April sent out...but that was a fairly simple task, the harder stuff was done earlier in the week).

One of the things on my "rolling" to do list is to write about a book I finished recently...maybe that's something I can do today? I want to write about this to help clarify my thoughts about the topic, but also to recommend it to you as a worthwhile read.

The book is called Unoffendable by Brant Hansen. It was mentioned during the retreat in March, and, to my surprise, I was able to find it my online public library. The book takes us back to basics, especially about anger, but also love, forgiveness, and living a restful life. It was quite US-focused, though. The US sounds like a very angry culture, and perhaps Australia has changed in recent years, but I think our culture tends more towards the "she'll be right mate" laid-back attitude that both annoys and attracts Americans.

What shocks me in the book is what the author portrayed as an apparent acceptance by Christians of anger as a good emotion: legitimising one's answer as "righteous" is commonly mentioned in the book. People saying that you can't get things done unless you utilise anger as a motivation. And "Isn't being offended part of being a Christian" (quote from p15 of my ebook).

The author has concluded, in an apparently counter-cultural move, that Christians should be the most unoffendable people on the planet. Here is some of what the Bible says about anger:

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice" (Eph. 4:31 NIV).

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires" (James 1:20).

"But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips " (Col. 3:8).

I looked it up and the term "righteous anger" isn't in the Bible, actually. Most of what is written there about anger is very negative.

But as I type that, I think of examples of stories of characters in the Bible who did get angry for good reasons: Moses (more than once), David, various prophets, etc. But the question really is, as a book review on The Gospel Coalition's website says, in theological terms, is "anger a communicable or incommunicable attribute of God. . . is anger an attribute God shares with people?" A question you need to answer before you can use Jesus's anger as a justification for your own.

I am no theologian, but I think that Christians probably justify anger more than we should, but also, that there are times when anger is okay. But I don't think that it's okay to hold onto anger for lengthy periods or to sling around like a sledgehammer in a way that overshadows the life of love that we're called to. I know people like that, even Christians, and they aren't easy to live life near. This book addresses the tendency to go overboard in our justification of anger.

One of the parts of the book that struck me was that a restful life, a life characterised by peace, is actually more attractive than one that is full of anger and an easy-to-offend nature. Some how "restfulness" can often feel like a waste of time to me...but perhaps I'm more useful to God if I aim more at a restful-type life, than a running-around-like-crazy life?

I always love an author who writes in a personable way and is happy to share their faults. This book has that in spades. He also has fun (and helpful) stories and quirky chapter titles like: "This is the Chapter about how we're just barely smart enough to be stupid" and "And lo, the Kingdom of God is like a terrible football team".

It's a good read, even if you don't especially struggle with anger.

_____________

Postscript: The day ended, better than it started. I did get a bit more done (maybe because I did a bit of writing here...writing often works like that for me). And finished off with a helpful international collaboration meeting with others in our organisation. Then we had a delightful meal at a Japanese restaurant and, you've already seen the photo, ice cream cake!

Surprise in the mail at just the right time

In recent months I have mentioned a friend going through a rough time. I have her permission to tell you an amazing story from this month.

She is part of a trio of friends we call RAW. We've been friends for many years, but only in the last 18 months have formed this group and keep in almost daily contact via Messenger (they both live in south-east Queensland). Not long after we decided to be more intentional about staying in touch with one another we each encountered significant difficulties, including: our family who were told we couldn't return to Japan at that time and my friend's 12 y.o. son was diagnosed with brain cancer.

In mid-January this year, just after his 13th birthday, he transitioned into palliative care. We've been walking with her (virtually, in my case) through this horrid, yet incredible journey.

On the morning of March 4 she wrote to us that she'd been reciting to herself out loud in a car journey on her own: "He's dying, he's dying" to try to grasp the reality of it all. That really hit hard for me. She and I both have over 20 years of parenting under our belts and we've always seen our kids recover from illnesses, but it clearly wasn't going to happen (aside from divine intervention) at that point, and that was hard to get our heads around.

That same day I drove into the mountains with a van full of ladies for a two-night retreat. I fear that they wondered if I'd be able to cope with the two-hour drive, as I was a bit undone when I picked them all up.

That evening at the retreat I was able to spend time in prayer about this situation with a missionary colleague. She is no stranger to watching loved ones die and we poured out our hearts together (with no lack of tears on my part). 

Later I wandered over to the area where a small jewellery stall was set up. This is no ordinary jewellery. It is the outworking of a ministry called Nozomi Project. (I wrote about it a couple of years ago here—this link included a TED talk video by the founder.) "Nozomi" means hope in Japanese and it is a project set up "to bring sustainable income, community, dignity and hope" to women who suffered great loss in the 2011 triple disaster. That disaster claimed, that in a matter of minutes, the lives of around 16,000 people and destroyed or damaged over a million buildings, leaving hundreds of thousands displaced. The jewellery features broken pieces of pottery left in the wake of the tsunami and other up-cycled pottery.

Their tag line is "beauty in brokenness" and fitted the situation with my friend so well that I thought it would be fitting to buy her a present.

I tucked the earrings away in my bag to deal with later and got on with that retreat, and then the writers' retreat that followed straight on afterwards. I got home from those four nights so exhausted that it took a week to recover, meanwhile the earrings sat in a pile waiting to be dealt with. I asked my other RAW friend what she thought I should do: send the earrings as a surprise, or let her know they were coming. Her response was: 

"Surprises are always nice...I'd go with that...We can pray that they arrive just when she needs a nice surprise in the mail...God can arrange it."

On March 16, more than ten days after I'd bought them, I finally got to the post office and mailed them.

On Monday this week (23rd) my friend's son died. Great sadness as well as great relief. He testified to his strong faith in God until he could talk no longer. A great joy and challenge to all who watched this journey.

On Tuesday, while our family were camping, I received a strange photo from the friend who had suggested we pray for God's timing. It was of our friend opening a small parcel. On closer inspection, I saw it was about the size of the parcel I'd sent eight days earlier.

And yes, not only had the beautiful earrings arrive a day after my friend's son died, but our mutual RAW friend was present to witness it and tell her the whole story.

We cried tears of joy "together". She wrote:

"A gift that kindles a flame of joy for all of us in dark times . . . just wish I could give you a real hug to express it! . . . I love the symbolism of a God using fragments to further his story of gracious blessing to us in our frailty."

When I asked permission to tell the story here, she wrote: 

"Sure. Go for it. Whatever you think needs to be told to give glory to the Great Orchestrator."

So, trusting him in the small things, and the big things. This was such an encouragement to the three of us. It amazed me that I, who couldn't be there to hug and help my friend through her struggles (I only was able to be with her once during those 16-months), could even be somewhat "physically" present and an encouragement. I know that our prayers have helped and encouraged her, but this miracle of God's timing was an extra special blessing to us all. And another memorial stone to look back on when we doubt God's care for us.

Foil gift

An important value in Japan is to not inconvenience other people (or, another way to say that is: not annoying other people, as I wrote about in a post three years ago). 

As a foreigner, it is not always easy to figure out when you might inconvenience other people and we're still learning. But in a city where space is at a premium, where you put yourself, your children, and your belongings is a serious issue.

But when it comes to doing construction work on your house, you're heading into a land of much inconvenience to others. So we find that construction workers are generally very considerate about things like their vehicles blocking the narrow roads. However, to ward off any potential bad feelings, prior to doing construction it seems that they do an obligatory run around the neighbours to give an apologetic notice accompanied by a gift.

Last year we got a towel from the neighbours behind us. And we got another towel six years ago when a neighbour's fence was being fixed.

This time we got 20m of foil.

A house on our street, about 30 m from ours, has been demolished. It looks like they are going to be building again very soon. The block of land is bordered by two roads, neither of which is very wide. They aren't main roads, but they do get a reasonable amount of traffic on roads that are only about 5m wide. We've caused minor traffic jams by someone stopping near there to pick us up by car. 

Blue rectangle: our house
Red star: the construction site
Green arrow: entrance to kindergarten
Orange arrows: roads

I'll have to write another blog post to explain why there's
white paper suspended from string in the middle of the block!

Obviously, large construction vehicles are going to potentially cause traffic congestion and inconvenience to pedestrians, especially because across the road is a large kindergarten where most kids arrive by bus and on foot. They have a car park, but it is down the street about 50m. 

So, we've received a letter of apology in advance and some foil! I presume the kindergarten and all our neighbours received something similar in the name of keeping neighbourly relationships smooth.

Gifts with meaning

This is my Nozomi jewellery. By the way, it is
much harder to photograph jewellery than I thought!

This morning a 5.9 earthquake hit Osaka. You will probably have heard about it on the news. That's 550km from here, so we didn't feel it, but a few memories have been dredged up as a result. Yes, we live in an earthquake-prone country and news like this no longer surprises us. 

There is quiet relief that it didn't happen here this time, but sadness for those who have/are suffering. However, Japan is built for earth quakes and a 5.9 isn't a major problem for most people or structures. The news I've seen says three have died and over 200 injured. Electricity is off in many places and trains are still not running, There haven been fires and some walls/roofs have fallen. But I'm only telling you what I've read, and you have probably heard it or read it yourself.

Unique projects

However, I've been wanting to write about two social enterprises that were birthed from the level 9 earthquake that happened north of here near Sendai in 2011. These enterprises are similar to things you may have seen from much poorer countries than Japan: a group that provides employment for women, especially, and sells their goods. It's unusual to see it in Japan because this is such a wealthy country and most people can find employment if they want to.

But that changed after the triple disaster when so many people died (more than 15,000) and many livelihoods were also taken away. You can read about how these enterprises came about here: Nozomi Project and here: Megumi Project.

Nozomi sell jewellery created from broken pottery, they started with pottery that was left-over from the huge tsunami. Megumi up-cycle vintage kimonos into various gorgeous products.

I own jewellery from both groups.

These are my earrings from Megumi.

Here are two excellent articles about them from the Ethical Unicorn website: Nozomi Project and Megumi Project.

Here is a TEDx talk about Nozomi by one of the ladies instrumental in starting Nozomi (and, incidentally, she's a friend of mine).

A couple of months ago I flirted with the idea of bringing back some of this jewellry and selling it to interested people. It didn't take me long to realise I would have to wade through regulations about importing goods and also GST (Goods and Sales Tax). Sorry, I don't have the headspace or time, nor the inclination or motivation to deal with all that!

However, if you'd like to order something in the next day or two, you could have it sent to us (email me for a postal address) and we could bring it back in our luggage (though do check with them that they can get it to us by June 29). However, the reality is that postage within Japan for the Nozomi products is US$3 and worldwide is US$5, so you wouldn't be saving much! I do encourage you to get something from one of these projects, they are beautiful, quality products and have a unique story. 

Nozomi's meaningful tag line is "Beauty in Brokenness". I sent a gift to a friend from them and included with her gift was this: 

Nozomi is a social enterprise empowering women through the creating of beautiful accessories from broken pottery. Locally, Nozomi is providing jobs and community to women adversely affected by the 2011 tsunami. Globally, Nozomi is sending hope-filled pieces across the world as visible reminders that there really is beauty in brokenness.

A gift with a meaning. 

Gift wrapping in Japan

I don't do it very often, but occasionally, when I buy something in Japan, I ask for it to be gift wrapped as a present. Obviously not at usual check-out counter at the grocery store, but at many shops have this option and don't show any surprise at the request.

At an import shop yesterday I bought two small presents for my language exchange partners. I said they were presents and asked if they could be wrapped separately. The lady didn't bat an eyelid. She gave me a choice of wrapping and bag and then unhurriedly wrapped them beautifully. It took her a few minutes. 

She put the presents in a bag and asked if I wanted two extra bags to put the presents for my friends in. It is very common here to give something to someone in a bag or container of some sort (see a short post about this I wrote here). Just on Sunday a friend returned a book to me, she'd put it in a (reused) paper bag similar to the one in the photo.

Gift-giving is a precise art in Japan and there are many rules (see this short article for a glimpse). I'm not expert at all, in fact I'm very bad at it. The occasion in this case was that I'm going away for six months and I meet with these ladies regularly to have English and Japanese conversation practise. I was glad to give them a small token of my appreciation for their friendship and help.

Today was a gift

Today I had an adventure, a good adventure. Earlier this week I anticipated that I'd have time to go for a ride today and the weather forecast looked good too (sunny and 23C, as opposed to the cloudy cooler days we've had recently). But I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do with this ride. Would it just be a ride to the park and back? Or more? I was hankering after some coffee-shop time, especially a "date" with Jesus. I nearly ignored that impulse when I struggled to make a decision over where and when and what.

In the end, after haggling with myself for about half an hour after I'd planned to leave, I just left. Not really sure what I was going to do, except go to the park. I had my camera, half of a lunch with me and my phone.

It was a gorgeous day. I made it to the park in about half an hour. It's been six and a half weeks since I'd had enough time to go there and what a difference that time's made. Last time the Sakura (cherry blossoms) weren't quite fully out and there were lots of people sitting under them. Many other trees weren't fully dressed for spring either.

Today it was so green and leafy. New-spring green in a way I didn't understand before I came to this land where the seasons are much more marked than Australia.

A gentleman asleep on the bench.

There were many in the park again, but this time large groups of kindergarten students and their mums. I counted about half a dozen groups that were a hundred strong at least.

There were lots of people strolling, or just sitting. I saw a painter, heard a trumpeter and saw many just happy to be out on such a pleasant day.

One of the massive groups of kindergarten kids in the park today.

What is this?

I spent some time riding around and shooting some photos. While I ate my banana and muesli bar I got a message from a friend who was at the store I'd thoughts about visiting on my way home to get a better "hanger" for my obi (see here). She offered to get it for me (actually it was her who told me about this in the first place). I said, "Yes please" and that freed me up from taking a detour on the way home.


So, I decided to ride another three k's south to a city centre with a Starbucks. 

It was a surprisingly quick ride, but I quickly found myself in that inner-city dilemma of "where do you park your bike?" I rode a long block west till I found a legal spot and then, on my walk back to the place where Starbucks allegedly is (I still haven't laid eyes on it), I discovered a different cafe I've never heard of before: Pier's Cafe. Prices looked reasonable and it appeared to have some nice nooks to sit in, so I took the plunge.

Then I pulled out my phone to read the Bible. Again, no plan, but the verse I spied on Biblegateway.com's home page was from Hebrews 6. I clicked on it and got James 3, no idea why, but I went back to Hebrews 6.

I was blown away when I read this:

Hebrews 6:10-12 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (NIV)

It spoke right to me:

• My job is to help God's people (I'm in support work). 
• It's been tempting sometimes recently to give up. Thoughts like, Isn't this just busy work, is it really important that you do this? have been popping up occasionally.
• The verses encourage us to continue to "the very end" whenever that might be, and not to give up.
• Finally, we're instructed to not be lazy, but imitate those who have already inherited what we've been promised (i.e. heaven). Which of course brings to mind the two missionaries we lost last month.

Then I found myself wiping tears away. I read it again in several different versions and the tears kept coming. It's been a teary few months, more so than usual.

There is a portion at the end of the chapter which is also encouraging, though it also includes confusing bits and pieces.

 Hebrews 6:18-20 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. 

Now I don't claim to understand all of that (and Bible commentators have different opinions too), but a couple of things also jumped out:

• "Fleeing to take hold of the hope" reminds me of the tower in Proverbs 18:10 "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe" (NIV). This verse has been a special image in my spiritual walk since 1994, the year after my short-term trip to Indonesia, and probably one of the lowest times of my life.
• We have a safe and secure anchor for our soul. That too is a strong and encouraging image. No matter what assails us in this life, if we have Jesus as our Lord, then we are secure.

Yep, just as the verse says, I was greatly encouraged! I dwelt on these verses for a while. It wasn't longer than half an hour. We're not talking a super-hero retreat here. But it was exactly what I needed.

As I was on my phone (not the best method for contemplating scripture, I know) I was also getting periodic alerts for other things going on—like a message from a friend organising to get together for coffee next week for mutual encouragement. Then I saw that my long-term friend who was my Matron of Honour commented on something on Facebook. In March I'd dashed into a coffee shop for a late-morning boost to finish my errands for the morning and "run into" this same friend online. We spontaneously chatted online that day too. Such joy! She's a homeschooling mother-of-six, so it's not easy for us to connect. So, today, I tried again: I messaged her, "Do you have time for a chat?"

I held my breath for a couple of minutes. Then my phone started buzzing. We chatted for half an hour using FB video call. It was wonderful, just like having her there across the table from me.

Oh, my heart is full. I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but it turned out that God had some wonderful surprises for me. Thank you Lord!

These last weeks haven't been easy. Not just grief, but extra busy too. It was such a wonderful gift to take time away from my responsibilities and spend time in nature as well as in the Word, with the bonus of unexpected time with a friend too.

Early birthday present

I've been busy writing today. I summarised a six-page list of prayer points from our field into one page for more general distribution. Then I wrote the majority of our prayer letter (and laid it out). Aside from a bit of housework, grocery shopping, and some emailing, that took me most of the day from 8.30 to 4pm.

In the middle of all that the doorbell rang and my early birthday present arrived. It was super difficult to hold off playing around with this baby while I got my work done! I'm looking forward to finding time soon to have fun with this "new" second-hand camera.

Christmas present mis-adventure

My days recently have been a mishmash of editing at various levels and for two different publications. But yesterday afternoon I'd planned to take a couple of hours to meet a friend at the gym and work out. Unfortunately I forgot that I'd also been tasked with the job of posting our Christmas presents to family in Australia.

I was absorbed in editing when I realised time was running away from me and I hadn't had lunch. While preparing my simple lunch I realised this was my last lunch time at home on my own this week and I hadn't listened to a sermon from our home church as is my general custom once a week during my lunch.

So I ate lunch and listened to the 45 min sermon. Then it was 1.37pm and I'd agreed to meet my friend at the gym 1 km from my house at 2, so in a moment of amnesia I thought I could get one or two more things done on the computer. After about 10 minutes of that the realisation that I had these two boxes to post re-arrived in my short term memory. So I grabbed the boxes, only to realise that they didn't have addresses on them.

One address I could remember, the other I had to message my husband to check. Before I left I checked the cash in my purse (we rarely use credit cards in Japan) and decided it should be enough, after all, the reason for doing it this early was to use the cheaper SAL.

Then I got my jacket, scarf, gloves, and helmet and fitted the boxes into my bike baskets. It was already 2pm so I also messaged my friend telling her I was running late.

I rode to the post office feeling pressured but not realizing things were about to get worse. I soon found out that I didn't have enough cash for both boxes. So decided to at least get one off. Then the SAL form was more detailed than I remembered (it's been a few years since I filled one out, I think David did it last year, we don't send big parcels often). I had to remember the contents exactly: what and how many and how much it cost.

The deal buster was the little bit at the bottom of the form that asked me to advise the postal service what to do if they couldn't deliver the parcel. The choices were: return it to sender, throw it away, or send it to another address. I wanted to send it to another address in the same town, but couldn't remember any addresses of other family members and didn't have that information on me. Frustration!

Finally I decided to abandon the whole expedition. In the end it took me 45 minutes to get two SAL forms, because that is all I achieved (apart from knowing how expensive this would be). I was late to meet my friend, but managed to catch her in the end, even if she left before I was done working out.

Why did I tell you this story?
I typed most of this sad little tale on my phone standing on the train on the way home from a meeting today. Now it is 8pm and ever since I typed the above I've been questioning the purpose of telling you the story.

Here are some possibilities:

1. I'm not complaining, just a bit frustrated that something that shouldn't have been so difficult became difficult and meant that I broke my promise to be at a certain place at a certain time plus it was inconvenient to have to go back a second time. 
2. Language wasn't an issue, that's something to be thankful for: there was a time in my life in this country when I dreaded going to the post office.
3. It's just a slice of my ordinary life that fits into the purpose of this blog: my life isn't so different from most of yours in many ways, there are many things that I do that you can relate to, even if they get achieved in a different way (like riding with boxes on my bike and using cash).

4. The other noteworthy thing is the challenge it is for us to do Christmas away from our families. We've only been in Australia for three Christmases in the last 16 years. That's a challenge not so much becuase we feel homesick—because we don't really, we miss family, but not in a way that affects our day-to-day functioning and emotions. It's a challenge because we don't know our families as well as we used to and we almost never see their reaction to a present we give them. Buying presents for them, that we can afford to post, is getting harder and harder simply because we don't know them well enough anymore and that is sad. We've gone simple this year, but of course I'm not going to tell you how, 'cause some of them read my blog.

So I guess I wanted to show you a little of the reality of missionaries dealing with living away from family. It is harder to stay in touch, to function as extended families. It takes effort, hopefully that effort comes from both sides. But the truth I've discovered as I've gotten to know more missionaries more deeply is that most find there are significant difficulties with family back home. Not all members of an extended family, but in almost all cases there are some problems, particularly with family not understanding the life of the missionary or not caring to hear about it.

I know that no families are "normal", no families are without strife—that is just a myth. However it does seem that mission puts an even greater strain on extended families and I guess that is understandable in many ways, though not desirable.

I will not talk about our own situation, that is private and not for discussion here.

However, if you pray for missionaries, pray for their extended families too. Pray for them at this time of the year when many families physically get together when they may not at any other time of the year.

Snapshots of our weekend

Yesterday we spent a whole day supporting one of our boys as he did sport. It was our middle son doing track and field again, his last meet of the season. 

It was almost inner city, close to Tokyo  Harbour. Only 30km, but it has taken us 2 1/2 hrs to drive in the past, so we went by train, much more reliable. The closest stop is actually on the monorail to one of the airports. I took this photo out our window. Looking back the other way our youngest said he was able to see even more trains at once than these four. 

I was slightly shocked to see someone Asian with his feet on the seats in front of him. It's not usually possible in a Tokyo train because for maximum capacity they mostly only have seats along the sides. I was "relieved" to see he had his shoes off though. Oh how "Japanese" I've become in some ways!

This screen shot of a Google map shows not just location but the route you'd take if you walked! The train route was more roundabout, but faster than 6 hrs. Only 90min. Our house being the blue dot and the red "pin" was the venue, a bit south of the city on what I think is a created island.

It was beautifully sunny. I tried to be sun-safe: hat, sunscreen, shirt, plus an umbrella because there wasn't much shade in the stands, but my soft winter-white skin still got a little burned. It was also gusting at times so today we feel a little crispy. 

I dressed in a t-shirt and knee-length skirt. It was glorious to be so free of clothes (I think it is the first time this year that my legs have been seen uncovered outside of our house). But in the morning, at 23C, it was still a little chilly if you stood in the shade. Hence my light jacket. 

Here's my husband (closest to the camera) and his colleague (also a CAJ maths and science teacher) both wearing the same school t-shirt and both watching their middle-school middle sons at track! Our families each have three boys of similar ages and similar sporting interests, so we've spent some time together over the last year. Terrence lamented yesterday that he'd forgotten to bring his sunglasses, that would have completed the "we're twins" image!

Here is our son finishing strong in the 100m (he's in the yellow and blue). He missed his PB/PR by 0.15 of a second. I love the photo that my iPhone took! 

It's a little unnerving to see these kinds of signs around near this venue. Gentle reminders that we live in earthquake prone territory and in a tsunami-vulnerable area.

The only photo I've taken today is this: my mother's day present from the guys. It arrived with an interesting, amusing story, but I won't tell you because that might just embarrass some boys. I love it, it's a great addition to my little indoor garden half-way up the stairs.