The Miracle of "statue of Jizo"

Mondays are usually my only days with full of freedom. As written as the subtitle of this blog, I'm working on STEP test 1st grade. So, I can make the most of my time studying English at a family restaurant. Somehow I cannot concentrate on my study when I stay home, but can enormously concentrate on it especially when I study at a family restaurant, on the bus and train. I don't know why. Anyway, now we are living in such a happy age that only with some coins we can stay at a family restaurant as long as we wish and enjoy all-you-can-drink. There I was reading a book titled 'How to prepare for the TOEFL ESSAY', which includes a number of exemplary model essays and strategies to structure a good essay. It is really easy and well-organized for non-English users to understand how an English essay should be developed. Actually I'm also doing a correspondece essay writing course with 'Aquaries school of English', which a famous bookwriter of English Mr. Ichy Ueda runs. Unfortunately, ever since I started his tuition, I have been feeling that his feedback on my essays is too advanced for me to understand precisely. But whilst reading the book, I was gradually able to figure out what he wants to say. I was glad that I could find a progress regarding essay writing!

Oh! I should have mentioned that my Monday freedom ends at 5pm because I have to pick up my son at the playschool. Wrapping up my study on the half way done, I rushed into the playschool. When I was fixing my son on the child restraints, I tentatively put his shoes on the car roof. I was supposed to take him to the doctor for vaccination, so I was feeling a little heat. Then I totally forgot leaving his shoes up on the roof. As a matter of course, as we arrived at the clinic, the shoes had gone somewhere. But I did not want to give up. They're such adorable shoes with my son's names on them. After seeing a doctor, we returned the playschool again, and tried taking the same route to the clinic since I believed that they should have been somewhere on the road unless somebody had taken them away. It was a blessing that we could find them on the side of the road. The first shoe was left in front of the "statue of Jizo" standing along the road. The second shoe was found approximately 10 meters away from the first one. "Jizo" is also said to be "guardian deity of children." Therefore, I couldn't help believing "Jizo" was watching my son's shoes very carefully. My son and I really appreciated "Jizo's" miracle that evening.

Paper chase day!

I've got lots of things to do every day at work. But personally I like to keep myself busy on weekdays. I always prepare a 'To Do List' , with which I enjoy deleting each task as I finish it one after another. Since paper chasing had one of the least priorities, I was kind of ignoring it for quite a while. So, my shelves were full of binders and folders with unnecessary documents. Today I eventually sorted them out based on the content of the documents: the documents to be shredded, manuals, previous meeting agendas, and English documents written by native teachers. Especially the last ones are worth keeping in a separate file because I can pick up bunch of native expressions and apply them when I write English journals. I believe that extensive reading enormously contributes to mastery of writing. Whilst reading the English papers, I sometimes encounter the expressions which appear to be far from a standard English. In that case, I check them with my American co-worker whether or not they are commonly used. In addition, I really enjoyed shredding hundreds of documents. What surprised me indeed was how powerful the latest shredder is whereas it's really compact. Technology is fast-evolving.

I appreciate the blessing of health.

I'm glad that I have just been relieaved from a-week-long sickness. Ever since I attended my sister-in -law's wedding last Saturday, I had been feeling sick and severely lethargic. At first, I believed I had a cold, but the sickness lasted longer than usual. Taking my temperature at a clinic, it turned out that I had a low fever for 36.9 degrees Celsius. I got a vitamin shot to alleviate the lethargy, and the doctor prescribed painkillers, antipyretics, and antibiotics. Normally, with painkillers and a vitamin shot, I get better enough to be able to teach classes as if I were not sick. But this time was totally different. I was feeling like I was walking in the dark woods whilst dragging the blocks of iron. I was sincerely hoping that I was healthy. Once I got better from sickness, I really realized that it is a blessing to be healthy. During sickness, I cannot read books, write emails, or enjoy blogging. What a waste of my time it is to stay in bed so long! However, seeing from a different perspective, this might be a message from God that we should cherish every single minute in life. It was the moment I appreciated the blessing of health.