My wife had recommended Dazaifu Tenmangu as a must-see place for my solo trip to Fukuoka, in Kyushu. I’m not usually someone who gets motivated by the words “must-see.” But perhaps my years as a manager have improved my judgment about which recommendations are better followed than questioned. My wife’s “simple recommendations” fall into that category.
So I made the shrine my first stop.
I was watching The Last Dance, Michael Jordan’s Netflix documentary, last year when I returned to work from four-month-long paternity leave. It was a great show and brought back all of the joys I had when watching Chicago Bulls in the 90s. And it still got me to think till today, what if my engineering team were a sports team.
We were buying our 14-month daughter her first pair of shoes. When my wife picked one in the store and showed them to me, the label on the shoes was 180° rotated, so I read it as “LIMITED DAYS.” But it turns out it was “LITTLE DAYS.” Oops!
I must have biased. I’ve learned that these shoes are for the transition, helping her get used to the footwear. So that “Limited Days” fits perfectly in this context.
“Wouldn’t it be sad putting ‘Limited Days’ on baby shoes?” said my wife. “Well,” I paused and thought about it, “don’t we all have limited days anyway, the shoes, us, and all humans?” I chuckled. I must admit I did get influenced by the dark humor of the TechLead (my new favorite YouTube channel).
Happiness is… is what? It’s an intimidating title for me to write about. Luckily, I’ve got materials. 😼
I found a desktop calendar in Rome a few years ago. Each page starts with “Happiness is …”, following by a heart-warming drawing and a simple phrase as the answer. It’s all the small things that we tend to forget. It’s in every corner of everyday life.
What an impactful title. Reading this book is like taking a self-awareness tour, or if borrowing the author Mark Manson’s metaphor, a “self-peeling” experience.
It reminds me of the book Essentialism a lot. Both talk about why and how to prioritize your attention, choose what matters to you based on finely honed personal values, and the ultimate truth of life – not about more but less. It’s the “let-go” part that is becoming unrealistically difficult and challenging in our current culture.
Standing by the glass window, looking upon the vast inanimate objects beneath my feet, I grabbed the phone and captured the magnificent view from JP Tower 29th floor.
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Motivation?