Forging on into 2016!
The end of this year isn’t so much a seal, but it’s a relief in that we’ve reached a rather arbitrary milestone – so that we can feel fresher and more ready for the next incremental box of mysteries that is 2016!
Dad had died two Augusts ago – peacefully in Mom’s family home, Hikozo – and we interred his ashes late this summer at Dai Bosatsu Zendo monastery near Livingston Manor, NY. Mom held a small service that extended overnight, attended by close family and friends who knew Dad and Mom intensely. A Japanese-style gravestone was erected; Buddhist chants and a ceremony was performed; the interment included everyone in attendance; and a reception and overnight stay at the monastery guesthouse allowed for more talking and reminiscing. Dad insisted that funerals and weddings are the ultimate reunions, and this service reopened some long-dormant relationships, introduced components from one part of our lives to others, and gave us a space and time for respite and reflection.
These days, Mom shuttles between the family farm – where her projects include renovating and maintaining the vintage farm house, and tending to and harvesting the umeboshi cash crop – and Forest Hills. We’ve been benefitting from Aunt Keiko’s talent as the pickler/briner of the family’s ume, and it’s in such demand that the family in the US has to ask in advance for a portion!
This was a year of meeting new friends via social media – enabling us to have friends from every-which-where, with a diverse bunch of mutual and exclusive interests. Our used-to-live-nearby friends are all over the place now, too – so “the family” is geographically more spaced-out. Even so, we feel closer to many than when they lived down the street! And we have been allowed to re-engage with friends we’d lost touch with, too. Life is better, and visiting is such a fulfilling thing :)
Of course, we have aged … and so, our birthdays and life events are more meaningful now, as are the special days of friends. We’ve done some more traveling to celebrate these days, and it’s the best excuse to endure journeys. We never were good vacationers, so we are relieved to be better at this form of visiting and being visited.
There was a lot of food, of course – we subscribed to two different CSAs this year, because being without "potluck veg" was kind of stressful to our psyches. And there were many operas and concerts – we are being aggressive about taking advantage of what our home city has to offer. We still have a way to go before we are fancy-free about roaming our boroughs, so don't be shy about visiting with a tourist agenda! ;)
We ended the year in San Francisco; Keisuke and Kristen were going to be there around Christmas, and we got an opportunity to house-sit a swank pad. It helped Mom with her jetlag (and she got a chance to repair some worn upholstery on a banquette sofa; we hope the homeowners don't mind our efforts!).
Our apologies for our late holiday cards – we were very busy at the end of the year, and so opted to do our card mailing in 2016.
May you have a wonderful and healthy new year, and may all things – good or bad – come in their time and their due course.
And enjoy the photos – we're doing something a bit different this year and trying out a slide show. Be sure to let us know how you like it ;) We post most of our photos on Facebook, but are trying to re-balance how often and what we post; might try Instagram this year, too.
See you in 2016!
Maki & Brian
