All Categories - 連翹奏 /Ren Gyo Soh

Vol. 90 Challenge

3/1/2023

Life sometimes challenges us on many levels.
pushes us down, pulls us down, shrinks us
and breaks us to small pieces.
How we stay present ourselves in such situations?

I would say,
breathing moment by moment,

those challenges ask us
what we really want?

Do we give up here?

no, I do not.
I will get up, pull myself together
and walk again
with my passion.

Vol. 89 a life of a flower

1/30/2023

A flower does not speak, it accepts its own life.
withering
shrinking
smaller and smaller
heavier and heavier
and,
rest one's self
on the earth
to return to
the Mother Earth.
surrender to the nature
to the universe to be embraced.

-Yokko

photo by Nanami Usami

Vol. 88 "How to Love"

1/23/2023

“Every one of us is trying to find
our true home.
Some of us are still searching.

Our true home is inside,
but it’s also in our loved ones around us.
When you’re in a loving relationship,
you and the other person
can be a true home
for each other.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

photography by KrzySien

Vol. 87 Breath, a bridge of mind and soul

12/3/2022

I am taking care of mother who is slowly passing right now. She in in the last stage of non curable lung disease. I work with her every day how she can breathe with the lungs which has lost the ability. We can not force lungs to work, we rather listen and care and negotiate with the lungs to live and enjoy the life she has left.
Breath supports a life, mind and movement.

When breath and mind connects,
the movement appears much fullness of life.

Every single breath is a result of life.
Letting breath go to let go things we do not need
to carry inside of our body, mind and soul,

And there will be space, Ma

When the space appears,
the new life comes in.
a new moment

unknown future.

-Yokko

vol. 86 Without Limits

10/31/2022

This body is not me.

I am not caught in this body.

I am life without limit.

I have never born

and

I never die.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Vol. 85 On How Lucky We are to be Alive

10/2/2022

“People usually consider
walking on water
or in thin air
a miracle.

But I think the real miracle is
not to walk either
on water or in thin air,

but to walk on earth.

Every day we are engaged in a miracle
which we don’t even recognize:

a blue sky,
white clouds,
green leaves,
the black,

curious eyes of a child
— our own two eyes.

All is a miracle.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh

Vol. 84 Fortune

9/1/2022

like
seeding and planting,

Like
receiving light from sun and moon
and
growing with your effort

you start new challenge

when you do your work day and night
like that above,

you will find what you are looking for in your life.

- Japanese fortune words

Vol. 83 Acceptance, Flexibility & Love

8/24/2022

I have been taking care of my mother who has a non-curable disease. It has been a month now since I started to live with her. What I have been learning about love is... accepting everything that appears in front of me, and being flexible to her needs, and breathing with her. She has been suffering, and in pain and of course she is scared--, yet, she is trying to live in this very moment. What I can do is be with her and accept anything and everything. Love does this effortlessly. I am exhausted, but I am fulfilled.

unconditional love.
That is what she has been giving me.

vol. 82 Freedom

7/19/2022

“Letting go gives us freedom,

and freedom is the only condition for happiness.

If, in our heart, we still cling to anything

- anger, anxiety, or possessions

- we cannot be free.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Vol. 81 Breath...

6/23/2022

Awareness of the breath
is the essence of mindfulness.

- Thick Nhat Hanh