Introducing My Neighbors

Today, I get off the bus and head back home after aikido practice. I am walking up the stairs along the stream near my apartment. It's all green, the cicadas are chirping, and there are hundreds of small crickets jumping on the stairs, which are made of big stones and gray concrete with small pebbles in it.

As I approach the foot of the stairs, I spot a small, stray puppy. He's scroungy but still cute. He's playing a little game with the crickets. It's simple, he's trying to catch them, and if he does, he eats them. His eyes are full of play and joy.

He sees me and gets scared and walks up to another part of the walkway where he can catch more crickets.

This reminds me of a meeting with a praying mantis I had yesterday. She was walking on the wooden railing, on the deck in front of my apartment. Those praying mantis's, they sure have big eyes, and the way they move, they look more like lizards or aliens from Star Wars, than insects. She spots me and slowly alights on a branch of a bamboo plant, slowly climbing the leaves, up, up. She's is a beautiful creature. I am in awe as I have never seen a praying mantis in action.

I decide to leave her, maybe she is scared. I don't want her to be, so I go back to my room.

You know, I think my life can be measured by these moments with animals, insects, children, and old people. It's during these moments that I leave the world of achievement, comparing, money, love and "relationships", even my big dream.

It's during these moments that I get a glimpse of the essence of being alive.