By Michelle Boyd So my brother and I are hanging out with his 2-year old goddaughter a few weeks ago. She’s the kind of kid who, as he points out, smiles not just with her face, but with her whole body. At the moment, her smile is trained on a plush, kid-sized, easy chair. Which, she has just discovered, can be tipped upside down into a little triangle, so that it doubles as a soft-sided…
By Kimine Mayuzumi What kind of summer do you want to have this year? What many people (including myself) tend to do for planning their summer is to first think about what to do and where to go instead of envisioning their summer as a part of their larger life vision. We tend to rush into making another to-do list and scheduling a few entertainments and/or family events. What’s missing is reflecting on the above…
By Kimine Mayuzumi Do you ever get to the end of the weekend and wonder where the time has gone? And then feel disappointed? I have been there many times. At the end of the weekends, I was disappointed because: the weekend did not turn out the way I wanted; I was left with house chores I should have taken care of; I was so busy running around and taking care of others that I…
By Yuki Imoto and Tomoko Tokunaga When we met in Tokyo in 2013, I (Tomoko) had just returned from the US as a postdoc, and I (Yuki) had started a faculty post in Japan. We connected through our common interests and shared backgrounds. We have been writing collaboratively since then. It was rare to find a friend who shared similar experiences of crisscrossing linguistic, cultural, and geographic borders. Our disciplinary backgrounds included anthropology, sociology, and…
By Kimine Mayuzumi Nowadays, I do my weekly reflection and planning on Friday, not on Sunday. I used to do it on Sunday evening after our kids going to bed. I set a timer for total 30 minutes, which helped me focus within the limited timeframe. The routine became a closure for the weekend. This worked well for the first couple of months. At some point, my weekly planning on Sunday evening became inconsistent and…
