The Small Happiness Close By

My work often takes me out to the provinces. In many regions you can see mountain ranges from the town, and drive just a little and rich meadows come into view. For a city dweller like me, it is an enviable sight indeed. Before I know it, through the car window, I find myself crying out in my heart, “I’d love to use that plant in a design.”

But for the people who live in those areas, it is surely all too ordinary a setting. Sadly, perhaps we living creatures lose the ability to see the small happiness that lies close at hand.

Taking things “for granted” narrows our thinking, and I even feel it becomes an obstacle to creating new designs. It is fine to long for cultures far away, but I want to live treasuring the fact that plenty of chances lie scattered close beside us, too.