9.20.22
About a year ago, I decided how I'd want to die: standing in my sweet potato field, surrounded by the full and turning green Japan mountains, facing the sky and saying thank you to God for the life I lived.
And this past Saturday, I found my future sweet potato field thanks to the Tanabe family who let me help harvest their golden goods. They saved me from the traditional back-breaking digging practices once practiced on those fields and just had me uproot the potatoes from scoops of dirt Tanabe-san dug with his shovel truck. But still! My dream can now be a reality! I have a sweet potato farm to go home to! Hurrah!
My time with them was beautiful also thanks to the first typhoon winds whooshing through the rice fields like Totoro's cat bus, the loads of grapes and yellow peach they fed me, and the cutest friendship between the next door granny and Tanabe-san's 1.5 yr old grandaughter "working" with me in the dirt. The duality and companionship of new and old life is such a privilege to witness because it is a living image of wisdom being handed, passed down to the next generation. I can't help but think what a privilege it is to witness this...while unearthing (then getting to take home!) some of the biggest sweet potato TREASURES ever.
