Content

The spring semester has started. Here in Japan we start the New Year from April, so that means that all the students have just changed grades. We graduated our old students from the Junior High in March, and we have a French bunch of first graders who started today. I had them as students when they were in elementary school as well; so most of them know me more than all of the other teachers in the school. It’s going to be a fun year for sure.
Here some of the teachers change each year as well. They move from school to school and sometimes district to district. It is nice to go to a school that I don’t frequent very often and see some familiar faces.
This weekend I have a mandatory school day on Saturday and then a mandatory teachers party with the PTA after school. The teachers’ parties are usually pretty fun and consist of me being the novelty for all of the fathers to talk US sports with and the mothers to get a change to talk to an American guy. The downside is that I have to pay $60 to attend. I don’t know about you—but I can stretch $60 pretty far in the US!!
I am getting older. I looked at pictures that Michi took of me when we were in Okinawa and one thing is for sure—I’m not as young as I used to be. I notice that my hairline is farther back, I have a double chin and that I find myself wearing the same clothes that I wore in college. How I used to be in style! Now I am content to wear the same pair of cargo shorts and t-shirts for the rest of my life. I have fallen in love with Chaco sandals. If I could wear them instead of shoes the rest of my life year round and not freeze to death—I surely would. That, or go barefoot. We went hiking in Okinawa and a guide insisted that I wear these shoes that our hotel provided. I said no way; I would stick with my sandals. He was really worried until I heard Michi tell him in Japanese, “Don’t worry about him. In America he’s from the country. He and his friends walk around without shoes all the time.” And all this time I have been trying to get rid of that Kentucky stereotype! Oh well, I guess I really do like to be barefoot.
I have been really enjoying renewed relationships with old friends. Even though I am in a remote area in a country on the other side of the world, I am pretty connected. I have been having some great spiritual talks with guys that are older than me that I really respect—Bow and Coat to name two. Never underestimate the impact that good advice can have on your life if you take the time to implement it.
The spring has brought a renewed freshness to my life. The sun on the mountains today is perhaps on of the most beautiful sights that I have ever seen. There are some days here when I feel like I could board a plane and go home right away—and others where I feel like I could look at the mountains for years. I think one thing that I have learned in all of my travels is that we have the ability to be happy and content wherever we are.
Being content is one thing that I am really working on lately. I think that many people in the world, especially in the US—struggle with being really content. I sat down the other day and was thinking—really, I have everything that I want. I didn’t say that I have everything that I need, but I really do have everything that I want. I tried to really think of things that I really want—but I can’t come up with too much.