Recipes for Mind and Body Happiness💞A Morning of Being Tested

💞Recipes for Mind and Body Happiness

Today's Theme: "A Morning of Being Tested"

Today, I feel like
something is being questioned.
It might be resolve,
it might be sincerity,
or it might be the
accumulation of choices I have made until now.

A morning of being tested is
scary.
I want to run away.
But what is truly being tested
is not the result,
but the attitude with which I face it.

Today,
I don't have to look strong,
I don't have to be perfect.
Just,
a morning to re-choose
the way of being I want to believe in.
A day of being tested is
also a day that brings me
closer to my true self.

💞Today's Quotes

Trials are not meant to break a person, but to reveal them.
Viktor Frankl

In the midst of difficulty, a person discovers themselves.
Helen Keller

Essence reveals itself when one is backed into a corner.
Louise Hay

Strength is not a situation, but an attitude.
Albert Schweitzer

What matters is not what happens, but how you face it.
Epictetus

💞Today's Morning Poem

The morning sky
does not promise
only a gentle day.

Clouds,
wind,
and sudden light—
I accept them as they are.

Every time it changes,
my capacity is tested,
yet even so,
I do not close.
That sky
quietly tells me
deep within my chest:
Even if you sway,
it is enough to remain open.

😽Zen Koan: "A question from me to myself in the morning"

Zen Koan: "What thought tired me out the most today?"

When night falls,
sometimes my mind is tired
before my body is.

When I look back on the day,
there wasn't any
particularly heavy event.
Even so, I am somehow exhausted.

Zen, at that moment,
poses a quiet question.

What was the thought
that tired me out the most today?

More than the busyness itself,
what tires us out
in many cases
is 'what we kept thinking about'.

What did that person think?
Was this the right thing to do?
Could I have done more?

The events
are already over,
but the thoughts
keep walking around
the same place over and over.

Just as the body gets tired
from running continuously,
the mind also
quietly wears out
from thinking continuously.

Zen
does not say to stop those thoughts,
it just says to
notice them.

Ah,
I have been holding onto
this thought
all day long.

The moment you realize that,
the thought
loses a little bit of its power.

Thoughts
are not the enemy,
but if you hold onto them too tightly,
they become heavy.

If you have found
the thought that tired you out the most today,

try setting it aside
just for tonight.

You don't have to find an answer
right away.

The night is not for finishing your thoughts,

but for letting your mind rest.

Take a breath,
and gently place today's thoughts
on the floor.

At that moment,
your mind
will finally
be released
from the weight of the day.

💞 My Breakfast

My breakfast features fermented foods as the main star.
Today, it's 'Nara Prefecture' deep fermentation nurtured by a long time, 'Nara-zuke'

Heading east from Hyogo,
the moment I got off the train, the air became quiet.
Nara, while being a tourist destination, has a different flow of time.
The parks where deer walk and the old townhouses have no sense of hurry.

The fermented food I encountered in this land is Narazuke.
It is one of Japan's representative fermented pickles, made by repeatedly soaking white melons or cucumbers in sake lees and aging them for a long time.

The first Narazuke I saw was a deep amber color.
The aroma was strong, with the richness of the sake lees rising up.
When I took a bite, after the crisp crunch, a sweetness and depth spread through my mouth.

It is different from ordinary pickles.
It was a taste that felt like eating layers of time.

The woman at the pickle shop said,
"If you rush, it won't become Narazuke."
By changing the sake lees many times and letting it age slowly,
that effort and time create that deep flavor.

Nara's fermentation culture exists alongside history.
In a capital that has lasted over a thousand years, food culture has also been refined.
Narazuke is like a symbol of that.

Walking through the town of Naramachi at dusk, I eat a small piece of Narazuke.
The scent of sake lees drifts through my nose, and my body warms up.
It is not flashy.
But it provides a certain sense of satisfaction.

To women who are too hard on themselves because they are in too much of a hurry for results,
Nara's Narazuke speaks like this:
Time will become your ally.

In the town of Nara, there is a beauty in not rushing.
Remaining unchanged becomes a strength.

While gazing at the deep-colored Narazuke,
I felt a little longing for that accumulation of time.

Nara's fermentation teaches us about quiet maturation.

💞 A word for the morning

A morning of being tested is
not a morning of being blamed.
It is a morning to verify.

If today,
without running away,
you felt you could face it,
then that
is already strength.

Being tested is
scary.
But at the same time,
it is an opportunity to know your own core.
May this morning
quietly draw out the sincerity and courage within you,
and become a powerful beginning.