remember

Even though it's June, the summer weather continues day after day.
Heat reaches far away from the heavens.
It has been raining in Fukuoka since yesterday, typical of the rainy season.
Green plums start to appear here and there from around the end of May, and on social media, people are excitedly posting pictures of how they are being made into plums in various ways.
I will also be making something this year using the things I find in my grandmother's mountain.
It's a secret pleasure to watch the plum hairs occasionally peek out from between the salt and sugar crystals, creating a sparkling silver landscape.

"We don't need to have as much sugar as we want,
Enjoying the clean, clear air,
Every year at this time, the prologue to Miyazawa Kenji's The Restaurant of Many Orders flows through my head, beginning with "I can drink in the beautiful peach-colored morning sunlight."

As the plums ripen, the room will be filled with their sweet, intoxicating fragrance.
This scent reminds me of something.

One time, I was telling my mother that I was going to take a friend who had come all the way from another prefecture to my parents' house.
I opened the door to an empty house.
And then this smell.
Sunlight seeped through the gaps in the curtains into the quiet living room with the lights off.
In the dim light, plums, Japanese knotweed, and small mountain hydrangeas were cutely displayed.
It's a small thing that makes me feel like my fatigue is slowly going away.
It conveyed a sense of freshness and caring kindness.
Although I was away on business, the room was filled with the feeling that my friend was welcome to relax.

She casually decorates the things around her.
The plants in the bathroom make me happy every time I wash my hands.
I changed the water every day, and as the flowers from yesterday got shorter and shorter, I added other flowers.
Switched again.
My house, my grandmother's temple, my neighbor who grows flowers,
I imagine she arranges the plants that are in her heart on each day.
It indirectly looks like a flower-shaped diary,
It reminded me of the diary exchange I had been keeping with my mother for a long time when I was in elementary school.

I love the stories behind these plants, and it is incredibly moving when I encounter moments when plants remind me of small events, even the tiniest ones, that we all have.
The reason she chose to work as a florist was because she was strongly attracted not only to the attractive shapes and forms of plants, but also to their existence and role.

My mother was very modest and put others first, and stayed in the background quietly.
I am impressed by your ability to find joy in the little things.
The pronunciation of the name Maya is said to have come from Maya, the birth mother of the Buddha.
Digging deeper into the arrangement of the kanji, we find the interjection, which can be interpreted as either a verse or a question, to express that imperfection is beautiful.
These are magic words that loosen up the thoughts that make you think, "I have to do this!"
Notes of things I want to keep in mind and don't want to forget.

Until today, Utsushiki is hosting the Early Summer Mineral Festival!
This is a rare and valuable exhibit that brings together all the minerals that Ono has collected over a long period of time.
It's packed every day, and I was amazed at the number of children who love stones and how knowledgeable they are.
A child is observing the stone of his choice with an illustrated guide in hand.
A child who carefully wrote down questions for Ono in a notebook.
It was a time when we were able to see each of them with a serious look in their eyes.
Plants and minerals seem to be somehow related.
A tiny piece of this earth that may pass us by,
Once carefully scooped up, they become someone's treasure and a source of nourishment.

I hope you all have an irreplaceable day today.

Saori Konishi