Stepping into 2026 with an unfinished book

Gazing through my window to a vast snow canvas and my thoughts travel back to the same time last year. I am half way through my current reading and I can’t help but smile at the irony of entering a new year with an unfinished book. As much as I want to complete the book, I also don’t want it to end. It comforts my heart to carry the same story, along with the same good memories to a new year. I don’t want to remove my warm jacket from this year. 

I am also checking my new year resolutions and for once my heart feels at ease. I neither had any strong commitments nor ambitious targets and even if there were some I feel like I can still continue with this coming year. No massive achievements but there were some losses along the way, just to remind me of the lessons I have been learning every time. Even so, my emotions were stable and the year unfolded itself beautifully free from chaos and dramas. 

Slight escape to home from Japan was my fondest memory of this year. For I have felt what it means to miss home and to be home after staying away from it for so long. As much as it’s adventurous to be in a foreign land, the heart always yearns for the home as the day ends. Still I am aware that I will be missing being away from home the same time next year.

There was a time when I was all about new year and fresh promises but this time I feel reassured to go with the same old book with the same stable emotion with the determination to complete all my unfinished commitments. 

So here I am stepping to yet another year with a heart full of gratitude for a stable memory and with the hopes for more beautiful memories in the year 2026.

 

From Okinawa to my Diary

One lesson that still lingers in my heart from the book Ichigo Ichi is that not to retire living your life just because you are getting old. It says people in Okinawa do not retire even at 90s, fascinating, isn’t it?  

I finally got to be there to see it for myself. The streets were illuminated with lights, restaurants and bars filled with people moving to the rhythm of living one’s life. It is really unusual especially to see Japanese people laughing loudly and even shouting without any reservation and I saw it there. 

It is a thematic place of blue symbolizing peace and every corner has made sure to carry a tint of it. Yet its serenity grew from blood. Okinawa was a war torn island back in the days. The place and the people have seen the worst tragedy where not even a child was spared. The greed and hunger of the country led to the sufferings of Okinawan people and it took years of war until the final battle of Okinawa in 1945 to put an end to it. Even after the war there was no magic to put everything in place with a snap of a finger. The struggles continued for years. It is these struggles that shaped today’s Okinawa, a tourism hub and the messenger of peace.  

Detached from mainland Japan, geographically and historically, it carries its own rhythm. From the facial structures of the people to the architecture of the houses, it carries it off differently. The modest single to two storied houses filled the outskirts of the place while the pine and the palm trees filled every walking aisle. As a cherry topping the moderate temperate lifts the mood of every visitor for any kind of adventure and exploration. 

Okinawa just felt like a warm hug on a cold snowy Christmas Eve. Joining the people here to share their message of peace- from Okinawa to the world through this piece of memory.