What You Are Looking for is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

What I do know is that there’s no need to panic, or do more than I can cope with right now. For the time being, I plan to simply get my life in order and learn some new skills, choosing from what’s available. I’ll prepare myself, like Guri and Gura gathering chestnuts in the forest. Because I never know when I might find my own giant egg.

There are so many things to do, but I won’t make the excuse that I have no time anymore. Instead, I will think about what I can do with the time I have. One day is going to become tomorrow.

when it comes to happiness nothing is better or worse—there is no definitive state.”

“Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Try not to think of upset plans or schedules as personal failure or bad luck. If you can do that, then you can change, in your own self and in your life overall.”

The heart has two eyes to perceive that which is not visible to the eye. One is the “Sun Eye,” which sheds a bright light on our understanding of things from a rational and logical perspective. The other is the “Moon Eye,” which perceives things through instinct or emotion, in our imagination or dreams, such as seeing ghosts in the dark or entertaining a secret love. Both eyes exist in our hearts.

From big things to little, there are some things we simply cannot force to go to plan, no matter how hard we try.

Until now, I have always thought of things in terms of whether or not they could be useful to me in some way. But that may have become my stumbling block. Now I know the importance of the heart being moved, I have a list of things I want to try.

My plan is to appreciate every new day. And take a wide view of things.

I will not give up on myself. From now on, I intend to gather close all the things that are important to me. I will make my own anthology.