Summer Remains

Haven't put any flowers around the apartment but wanted to for the longest time. Saw the sunflowers at the store that made me think "hey, it's still viable to have a sense of summer," though it's near the end. I haven't done anything summer-y this year except for sweating like a pig as I nursed A, so it was liberating to find the bright yellow petals.

Surrounded in accumulating baby diapers and clothes in this never-ending feeding and changing life, I found it easy to get caught up in what goes on inside the house and to sort of isolate myself from the rest of the world, if I don't make a point in going out whether I like it or not. So, since we made A's stroller debut last Sunday, I go out every day running small errands, like buying a carton of milk or going to the post office, in hope of not becoming a maroon. And it's pretty gratifying when strangers seem nicer to interact with when  you are with a baby.

I have had rather harsh opinions in the past about the way Japanese people interact with each other, especially with strangers, but now that I am a mother of an infant, they don't seem as bad. It seems people look at me, a nursing mother of a two-month-old, in a way that's more readily welcoming and forgiving than, say, when I was single and striding the outside world in pin-heels. Like, another stoller-pushing mother would smile at me. An old ladies would approach me and tell me how cute my baby is. And I have met a disgruntled-faced old man open and hold an ATM booth door for me, and a cashier at a market carry my basket. Both in the same day. These people know kindness goes a long way for a mother with a baby out on the street. And this very idea makes it easier for me to go out again the next day, knowing that there are people out there that "understand".

Until next time,

Sak