This week I would like to wish a very happy Father's Day to my dad, good old Pop. He's almost always juggling ten thousand errands and several of my brothers and sisters' urgent requests at once, helping with homework, giving advice, laying down the law ("turn off that TV!"), cleaning/fixing things like nobody's business, and he usually has something to say or sing to lighten the mood, too ("the REAL song, the REAL song"). When I was growing up, even while teasing me about shipping me off to be a nun someday, he always made it clear with and without words that the Faith is the most important thing we have, and I paraphrase: "You can grow up to be a garbageman if you want to, as long as you keep your Faith."
It was encouraging to know that whatever monotonous part-time job I had (or didn't have), through all the what-should-I-major-in stress, Dad was behind me all the time, and still is. I wish he could somehow get the time to come visit me in Japan!
So thank you to Dad, and all thanks be to God our Father in a special way.
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
天におられる私たちの父よ。御名が聖とされますように。御国がきますように。御心が天に行われる通り、地にも行われますように。私たちの日ごとの糧を、今日もお与えください。私たちの罪をお許しください。私たちも人を許します。私たちを誘惑に陥らせず、悪からお救いください。アーメン。
. . .
Getting into my "handyman" stride yesterday, I pried up the tatami mats in my room and vacuumed the depths below. Actually, there was a lot of dust and tatami fall-off, pebbles, and some dead bugs. Luckily, they were dead. I saw only one little silverfish-looking thing that I disposed of immediately. (]:^D
After thoroughly vacuuming the edges and undersides of the mats, the styrofoam beneath them, and the concrete beneath that (and it smelled like a basement, eww), I went to put the mats back down. I thought I would switch up their placements to get more even wear and tear on them, and then I discovered that not all tatami mats are the same size. But I switched where I could, and the room was put back in order. Yay! I set a bug bomb off in there before leaving for church this morning, for good measure.
Next week... the other tatami room. dun dun DUN!
2 comments:
What a sweet tribute to your father. He sounds like a wonderful dad! Is that the version of the Lord's prayer you say at church? The one I know, and that we say at church is so much more formal. I like your version. And, may I say that I am very impressed with your thorough cleaning (you must have a great mom, too ;o))! That doesn't get done around here very often (ahem)!
Yes, that's the version we say in church! I think once I went to a church in Maebashi, Gunma where they said a slightly different version, but I don't remember it.
Yup, my mom trained me up well!
I love the smell of tatami, but now I can't stop looking at it without a slightly suspicious eye... ;)
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