Aliveness, Gratitude, and Contentment

"I wanna go see dinosaur bones. Dinosaur boooooooooones..." Followed by intense sobbing, followed by intense waterworks.

I kinda get it. Eri often advises me to avoid telling the boys about what I'm planning. I like promoting an attitude of looking forward to special things with a dusting of delayed gratification, but it's Kenzo and Osamu. They're little boys. If things don't go according to their expectations it destroys them most times.

Osamu was feeling the intense disappointment I caused by announcing last week and writing on the family wall calendar that we would be going to see the dinosaur bone exhibit at the the Sendai Science Museum.

In the end it turned out to be a stormy day, Osamu had to go to the doctor because he had a bad cough and runny nose, and Kenzo and I were fully exhausted from a crazy week and held down the fort on the sofa all morning watching Harry Potter movies.

Dinosaur bones was not happening today.

I was thinking of something I read a long time ago.

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

Eri made one of her specialties tonight. Slow cooked pork chops.

Every day I am consciously trying to acknowledge and cherish my treasures in order to cultivate a deeper sense of aliveness, gratitude, and contentment.

The boys got summertime haircuts tonight. Eri wanted to put a little space between their haircuts and our big trip in case she totally messed up.

They look great.

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