母／Mother's Day 2020

JOさんの作品

（横浜のお店で購入可能です）

母の日

見た目と話すことにギャップがあるので、誤解されやすい母

長年の母の行動を見て、ああ、この方は表現が不器用なのだと最近気づくようになった。

行動が本心を表すという

私が勉強するのに、どれほどの犠牲を払ってくれたか

大きなお金が入っている人と、小さいお金を懸命に貯めている人がだす同額のお金、大変はさいわずもがな。

気付いたときにはもう時間がないが世の常、人の常

私の手が本当に必要になったときに、たっぷり恩返しするからね。

ありがとう、お母さん。

認知行動療法士こころのダンス

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When Life Give You Lemons, Make Lemonade.

Have you had any hardship in your life?  How much did you feel distressed and how did you overcome at that time?  Every time we face a problem, we intentionally or unintentionally try to tackle with it, handle it, and deal with it.  Even though it is very bitter lemon, we can squeeze, boil, and put honey and other spices in it to be able to drink it.  When I look back on my life, I found that I made a variety kind of lemonade to benefit on me so every lemonade was meaningful beyond my expectation.  I'll introduce two bitter lemons in my life turning into sweet lemonades in the following.

The first story of lemon was when I fail to obtain admission of a music and fine-art university of my first choice and I was unwilling to go to a junior music college.  I wanted to study the second choice a four-year music college; however, my father highly recommended me to go to a two-year junior college because he worried about me to get older by studying for four years and delayed to get married over 25 years old of my age. It was a common sense at my father's generation.  After graduating, I worked as a piano teacher and player but many time my academic experience lacked of getting a better offer than others study at a four-year college or university.  I was often frustrated and regret the past.  When I got to know one of my students' brother who were disabled, I talked to his mother and applied music to enhance his reading ability and it was very successful.  When I started pondering about going abroad because there was no researcher to conduct study that I was interested in learning in Japan, I realized that a degree from graduating from a junior college didn't work.  Therefore, in order to earn BA, I entered a correspondence course of Keio University and it resulted in "Bingo".  I passed the exam to attend full-time a school in the last year and learned how to make researches and academic papers with supportive couple of professors.  Thanks to them, I mastered scientific ways of research for music therapy, admitted by a graduate school in the US, and won the Rotary Foundation scholarship.     

If I had not entered a junior college, I would not have chosen to study in a correspondent course at Keio University.  If I had not studied Keio University, I would not have known how to make researches and might not have won a scholarship since the professors' effective reference, resulting in not be able to go abroad due to the economic shortage. 

The second a big lemon in my life was when I failed to obtain H1-b, working visa in the US after being hired in Florida State Hospital as a music therapist.  My American friend said why I hired a California lawyer although the hospital was in Florida.  Anyway, I came back to Japan and started working a music therapist.  However, there were fewer jobs, many of part-time jobs, and lower payment.  Therefore, I started working as a cognitive behavioral therapist that is a psychotherapy and I was trained in the US in order for job hunting in the US.  It is a good timing 8 years ago, there were few counselors providing cognitive behavioral therapy so I was demanded at work gradually.  Another good luck on me, one of the professors who supported me at Keio University offered me a job of translation so I have been working with him to translate a book and imported program from English to Japanese for a decade.  I had never imagined that I would've provided counseling to people and translated books and programs when I was 20 years old, regretting failing to enter a university of my first choice!  If I had worked as a music therapist in the US, I would not have practiced cognitive behavioral therapy which helps a lot of people's mind and maintains my mental health as well.

When your life gives you bitter lemons, there are two options- one is you try to make lemonade, the other you just throw away to avoid accepting negative feelings.  I have a lot of lemons throwing away in my life, at the same time, I realize that I made a lot of lemonade as well.  I want to be a person looking for a silver lining in any hard situation in life because this is the best way to live.  In the final portion, I know that what i am going to say is to breach a rule of speech though, i should say i never forget a person who sacrifice her time, her money, and herself during my study in US.  On the mother's day, I would really like to express my gratitude to my mother, and also wishing all of your mothers whether they are on the planet or in heaven, all the happiness and fulfillment.