The Wisdom of Living Together with Nature

In a break in the rainy season, I headed to the liquor shop in the nearby shopping street.

Swallows were flying low over the main street of the arcade, so I recalled the old saying and felt sure it would rain again.

There are all sorts of teachings from our forebears who read the weather and natural disasters from animals’ powers of premonition and from natural phenomena.

For example: a beautiful sunset sky means fair weather tomorrow. Morning dew on a spider’s web means it’ll clear up. When tree frogs cry all at once, rain will fall before long. When a contrail lingers long, it’ll rain tomorrow. When catfish thrash about, an earthquake is coming. When crows caw fiercely in a flock, a natural disaster is coming.

And so on—in the accumulated wisdom of our forebears’ observation and imagination, not fully explained by science alone, I sense a talent superior in the five senses.

Having accomplished my errand in the shopping street, on the way home, from a nearby park came this year’s first cry of a cicada.

Ah, the rainy season, too, is counting down—can of beer in hand, I had a premonition that summer was near.