Last Holiday of Golden Week

It was really beautiful today.  I woke up wanting to move and feeling an obligation to practice for this week's upcoming program.  Japanese lesson, I thought, then workout at home, practice, study.  It's going to be a productive day.  But the wheels of a friend's lightweight bike on the pavement, the open sky and the green leaves beckoned me.  I could hear that voice inside protesting my plans, whining.  On the way home I pulled into an empty children's park and climbed a tree and sat there, taking a moment to appreciate nature and the sunlight through the leaves before abiding my inner adult.  As I got home I made a deal with myself: no workout, practice until a certain time, and then the gift of an hour-long open-ended bike ride.  Things clicked into gear, a good practice and a blissful ride with a stop along the way to stroll through a park of long-held curiosity, discovering within a community garden.

road along the river;
closed to cars on weekends for most of the day

pond in the park

one of the plots in the community garden

I came home and made a grocery list.  Skyped and thought about the future.  Planned dinner, prepared it, shopped, collected my water bill slip and tallied some finances.

Today's holiday, the last of Golden Week, is Children's Day, a day dedicated to the health and happiness of children.  It seems significant that a culture would dedicate a day to looking after children, to investing care and reflection into their well-being.  It seems that Japan very much values the resource of its children and what they can bring to the future.

In addition to seeing children as the future, to respecting the people that they are becoming and will be in society, I wonder if we as adults might learn something from them, even if we don't have any children in our lives.  As we compile daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and life goals, I wonder what we can learn from reflecting on children.  With or without them, what do they signify to us?  What can we learn from remembering and observing something of their nature, and what can they teach us as we create and live our grown-up expectations and goals?

This concludes Golden Week; except that because Children's Day fell on a Sunday, tomorrow (Monday) becomes a public holiday as well.  It's just the way it is in Japan.  I think it makes sense.