Sweet Bean Paste

by Durian Sukegawa

I pay attention to the language of things in this world that don’t use words.

It’s my belief that everything in this world has its own language. We have the ability to open up our ears and minds to anything and everything. That could be someone walking down the street, or it could be the sunshine or the wind.

People’s lives never stay the same colour forever. There are times when the colour of life changes completely.

I realized that no matter how much we lost, or however badly we were treated, the fact is we are still human. All we can do is keep on going with our lives, even if we lose limbs, because this is not a fatal illness. In the midst of darkness and a struggle we had no hope of winning, I held on to this one thing – the fact of our humanity – and I was proud of it.

I began to understand that we were born in order to see and listen to the world. And that’s all this world wants of us. It doesn’t matter that I was never a teacher or a member of the workforce, my life had meaning.

The only way to get over barriers, she said, is to live in the spirit of already being over them.’

Anyone is capable of making a positive contribution to the world through simple observation, irrespective of circumstance.