loose and sagging

March was so busy with things to do that I ran around frantically, and now I look like a Haniwa (clay figure).

Is Japan in full bloom of spring? Today, I also found a messenger of spring at the entrance to the forest.

As a thank you for walking my dog, a neighbor gave me a huge pile of birch firewood (´；ω；`)嗚呼... I'm so happy. It was a relay of neighborly kindness: the house next door cut down the birch tree on their property, and the house across the street split that birch tree into perfect firewood-sized pieces (they have a special log splitter) and delivered it to the front of our garage. It's like the "Straw Millionaire" story. If someone came and said, "Excuse me, would you exchange this firewood for my bolt of cloth?", would I be able to resist being greedy? Me, that is. It's highly doubtful.

I cleaned out the garage and stacked the firewood. Since it's newly cut birch, I'll let it dry here for about two years. Good night. I hope my whole family is healthy in two years. I'm making a wish on the firewood. The firewood is stacked beautifully, and there's a lot of happiness and peace of mind.

Sunday morning, I forgot that daylight saving time started yesterday and the clocks moved forward an hour. My 12-year-old daughter panicked when her friend, whom she had promised to meet at 11, came to pick her up. "Our clock says 10, but elsewhere it's 11? What's going on?" she wondered, and went off to play still in her pajamas. The joy of being able to stroll leisurely without having to rush due to the cold. My mind is also relaxed, and everything I do feels a bit more laid-back. I'm just letting myself go with the slow pace of spring, which has finally arrived.

I saw a document for updating cemetery rights for the first time. I have one grave that I look after in Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm (a World Heritage cemetery where Greta Garbo and Avicii also rest—is this grave bragging? Grave mounting? lol). Every 15 years, I receive a notice about the renewal period for the grave rights, and I have to decide whether or not to continue the grave rights for the next 15 years. The grave rights cost 1200 SEK per year. I was impressed. Isn't this system wonderful?

Having spent my childhood with a cemetery as one of my playgrounds, I remember looking at the gravestones in a corner where old, small graves that no one visited anymore were gathered, and imagining who these people might have been. Unless you're a very important person, it feels lonely to have only a gravestone remaining after being forgotten. A 15-year contract for a grave. Don't you feel the gentle flow of time in that 15-year length? While I think it doesn't really matter whether there's a grave or not, or whether there's someone to succeed it or not, the time I can spend before a grave, thinking of the deceased, feeling life and death, and having that empty time when my focus isn't quite right, is precious to me, a lost lamb forever wandering. Contract renewed! Signed and mailed!

Everyone, have a wonderful spring!