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“You managed to find employment, you go to work every day and you can feed yourself. That’s a fine achievement.”
like. It’s fun, though, to reread a book I loved as a kid. You pick up new things.
You can decide things, but there’s no guarantee everything will go as planned.
“In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now.”
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.
As I gaze at an illustration of a tree and its root system, with the earth the dividing line between what is above and what lies below, I am struck by a thought: most of the time we humans only look at the flowers or fruit of a plant, because we live aboveground. We switch our attention to belowground only when the roots have a particular interest for us, as in the case of sweet potatoes or carrots. Yet from a plant’s perspective, aboveground and belowground are both equally important and in perfect balance.
Humans only see what suits them most, and make that their main focus, but for plants... Both are main.
“The moment you say ‘don’t,’ you’re done for.” “Excuse me?” “You have to turn that ‘don’t’ into a goal.”
“Everybody is connected. And any one of their connections could be the start of a network that branches in many directions. If you wait for the right time to make connections, it might never happen, but if you show your face around, talk to people and see enough to give you the confidence that things could work out, then ‘one day’ might turn into ‘tomorrow.’”
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.
But almost always, it is women who pick up children from daycare. Why is the parent who gives birth always expected to make the biggest career sacrifice?
“Singles are envious of those who are married, and married couples envy those with children, but people with children are envious of singles. It’s an endless merry-go-round. But isn’t that funny? That each person should be chasing the tail of the person in front of them, when no one is coming first or last. In other words, 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.”
From big things to little, there are some things we simply cannot force to go to plan, no matter how hard we try.
“You may say that it was the book, but it’s how you read a book that is most valuable, rather than any power it might have itself.”
Things change. I change, other people change. That’s a good thing.
“This didn’t just come to you. It happened because you did something for yourself. You took action and that caused things to change around you.”
I, too, could change, and still be the same inside.
How much had my own thinking limited my opportunities?
People working in the book industry are not the only ones who make the publishing world go round; most of all it depends on the readers. Books belong to everybody: the creators, the sellers and the readers.
Just as every day is equal in value and no less important than all the others. The day I was born, today as I stand here now and the many tomorrows to come.
People find meaning in the bonus gifts for themselves. It’s the same with books. Readers make their own personal connections to words, irrespective of the writer’s intentions, and each reader gains something unique.”
