Being Close to Nature
"When I was a child, I played in the rivers and fields near our rural relatives. I would lie in the fields and sketch weeds for hours at a time. My mother would tell me all about different kinds of grasses and plants, and explain the medicinal uses of certain leaves, or tell me folk tales about a particular flower.
I also loved to spend hours looking at the moon, musing about philosophical questions. Even when I was a child, I felt that I would have to have a life with enough time to contemplate, to let my mind range freely. And I also knew then I wanted to live in the midst of nature. I began to think that the ordinary way of living life would be boring and tedious in the extreme." -Atsuko Watanabe
We all need a Little Magic in Our Lives
A sense of well-being, of peace with the world, steals over me the minute I set foot in the great outdoors. I have that feeling of freedom.
The poetic and the sensual all seem to be there in natural form. It's the very stuff of dreams, a land where th…