An ordinary working mom seriously considers 'Why do I write?'

This is sudden, but do you know about the Future Post Office?

It is a service that delivers letters to your future self one year later.

At the 2015 Rokko Meets Art, my husband (then my boyfriend) and I sent letters to our future selves one year later.

While telling each other, 'Don't look at it,' I entrusted my current feelings and thoughts to my future husband, and he did the same for my future self.

I'll keep it a secret that while I was watching his profile as he kept writing hard next to me even after I had finished, I wondered, 'Is there really that much to write?'

Not limited to the Future Post, we used to exchange letters quite often.

I loved the exchange of words that you can't experience through email. It brings back memories.

The time it takes to arrive, the time from when it arrives until you read it, the time to write a reply, and the time it takes to reach the other person again.

Having that slight time lag is perfect for writing about feelings that are hard to convey or things that are just the right amount of trivial.

Things that aren't worth sending an email about, but aren't quite right for talking about in person either.

Looking back now, I think that such exchanges of words might have built our relationship.

We talk about everything, to the point where people around us ask, 'You talk about things like that too!?'

When I pulled them out of the closet and reread them, they were full of trivial things like looking forward to that summer's trip, wondering what we would be doing in a year, looking forward to living together, or being happy about making bento boxes for each other.

Even among those, there were definitely some letters that touched my heart.

In the letter he gave me on the day our eldest son was discharged from the hospital, he wrote about how he was honestly scared and anxious about being present at the birth, but was moved by seeing the moment our child was born with his own eyes and by my strength, along with words of gratitude.

At the time, I wrote them because I just enjoyed the exchange of letters.

But now, as our family has grown and our lifestyle has changed while our relationship continues, I think again that letters that can be reread in chronological order are wonderful.

This is similar to the feeling of writing on note.

It's not urgent or important at all, and in fact, daily life would go on and I could survive without writing it, but when I happen to reread it, it makes me think, 'I'm so glad I wrote this.'

It's a happiness to be able to reread about the trivial things like what we did, what we thought, and what we laughed about together, and then laugh about them again.

I think there are countless things in our ordinary daily lives that we end up overlooking.

It would be a waste to just go through the motions of parenting, work, and housework.

The act of carefully polishing the raw gems found in everyday life is what writing is.

I want to laugh together over silly things

My own definition of happiness that cannot be reached through efficiency, time-saving, or productivity.

Something more important than how much money I can earn. That is why I think I have been able to keep writing on note, even though I usually give up on things after three days.

I don't write to gain something. It's the feeling of recognizing what I already have by writing about and expressing the happiness I currently possess.

Perhaps I don't have anything I want to achieve or gain.

Maybe I just want to express, in my own way, the happiness I already have and the daily life that is so dear to me.

Stories about movies we watched as a family,

Stories about holding a Kai-chan festival,

And other stories of my children's precious growth and our family life that I can vividly recall at any time.

When my children have grown up a little, I will be able to tell them about what we did when they were small, what they said, and how I felt as their mother.

If we can laugh together and say 'that's funny,' then the purpose of my writing is fulfilled.

Why do I write? It is the answer I finally reached after writing on note every day for over 800 days.

Sometimes I don't have enough room in my schedule, or I get tired from trying too hard.

But even when I write about such days, it helps me organize my feelings, and strangely, my heart settles down.

And I think that my future self will be able to look back and acknowledge that I was doing my best back then.

The reason for writing is,

The reasons vary from person to person, ranging from personal motives like self-reflection, stress relief, and daily record-keeping, to professional goals like building a career or earning money.

That is why writing is so interesting.

I want to live my life in an interesting and enjoyable way.

While I certainly have the desire to make writing my career, I also want to keep writing to enjoy life itself.

By the way, you might be wondering what we wrote in our letters to our future selves, so I will show you at the end. (Please don't say you aren't interested!)

The difference in temperature. Lol

And so, it has become a classic joke between us as a couple (lol).

Since we were able to laugh about it together, mission accomplished!!!

I have submitted this to Hana Fujiwara's contest, 'Why I write'.

It was an opportunity for me to think about my reasons for writing once again.

Thank you for such a wonderful project.