"May we spend our summer vacation all together as a family"—The hearts of children reflected in Tanabata wish strips🎋. Give 'Prism' and 'The Blue Hydrangea is Crying' a listen🎵

Thank you for finding this note
♡

Tanabata is almost here🎋

Today, I was looking at the Tanabata decorations
displayed at the temple's after-school care program.

The children's wishes are lined up on colorful strips
swaying in the breeze.

"World peace🌏"

"I want to drink beer like I'm bathing in it🍺"

(Is that Dad's wish?)

There are some that make you laugh involuntarily.

"May my family be healthy and live a long life✨"

"May I get a 400 on my test✏️" (lol)

There are also wishes that make you want to say
"Nice👍"

From grand dreams
to earnest daily wishes.

Every strip
has the child's personality in it,
and just reading them
makes my heart feel at ease.

Among them,
there was one that caught my eye in particular.

"May we spend our summer vacation all together as a family🌻"

It is a wish written by a fourth-grade girl.

The moment I saw it, the depths of my heart were quietly stirred,
and I teared up🥲

I asked the after-school teacher,
"Did you tell the children
'Try writing about your family'?😳"

When I asked that,

the teacher laughed and said,
"No (laughs). When we were children,
we wrote about more materialistic desires, didn't we?"
And... I laughed🤭

When I was a child, too,

"I want this."
"I want to become this."

I remember writing
honest wishes like that🎋💭

That is why
this girl's wish remained so strongly in my heart.

Her father
works in the automotive industry,
her mother is a childcare worker,
and her older sister is a university student.

The whole family
spends their day in their own respective places.

Surely, there are many families like this.

Parents support the household through work,
and children head to school, lessons, and club activities.

Aligning everyone's schedules perfectly
has become much harder than it used to be.

Back when I was
a district leader for the children's association,
every time I had to set a date for an event,
I truly felt the difficulty.

Work, school, lessons.

The more schedules increase,
the fewer days the whole family can be together
than you might think.

Now is an era of the "individual"
where each person lives in their own way.

It is wonderful that choices have increased
and the world has expanded.

On the other hand,

even if we live in the same house,
we leave at different times in the morning,
our return times at night are staggered,
and we have separate plans on holidays.

Even when families are together,
the time flowing for each of us is different.

In my home, too, there are days like that sometimes.

That is precisely why
"May we spend our summer vacation all together as a family🌌"felt so precious.

If children are mirrors reflecting their era,

this wish strip
was not only one girl's wish,
but also seemed to reflect the current era.

It doesn't have to be a luxurious trip.
It doesn't have to be a special event.

Eating a meal together.
Looking at the same scenery and laughing.
Having someone listen when you say, "You know, today..."

I think that is the kind of casual time
the girl was wishing for.

Happiness is not found on special days,
but in a day where you can think, "We spent time together"isn't it?

Tanabata wish strips🎋
are things to write down children's wishes.

At the same time,

I feel that children's wishes
are also questions posed to adults.

In our busy daily lives,
who do you want to spend time with,
and what kind of time do you want to spend...

If you were to write a wish strip today,
what wish would you entrust to it?

I would be happy
if you could think about that wish
before you go to sleep tonight😴💭

I also thought I would cherish
the time I spend with my family more🍀

Thank you for reading
until the end.

☆。.:＊・゜☆。.:＊・゜☆。.:＊・゜

🎧Today's Recommendation🎵

"Prism"

Uri Nakayama

"The Blue Hydrangea is Crying"

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