What We Choose

For a long time, whenever something did not work,

I tended to see it as a problem with people.

Why does this person do things this way?

Why can’t we understand each other?

Why does the same problem keep returning?

Lately, I have begun to see it differently.

When I see it as a problem with people, I become frustrated.

When I see it as a problem of structure, I can understand it.

When I see it as a matter of my own choice, I can move forward.

No one needs to become the villain.

People have their own ways of working,

and organizations are shaped by what they have allowed to become normal.

And we, too, are free to choose

where, with whom, and how we want to work.

I want to work in places where responsibility and authority are clear,

where only the words that matter need to be spoken,

and where people can move quietly.

Quiet does not mean that nothing is happening.

Quite the opposite.

It means that people know their roles,

and things can move naturally

without someone constantly having to raise their voice.

Perhaps that is where good work begins.

Soon,

Yaeyama will enter one of its busiest weeks of the year.

People will arrive from everywhere.

The island, the sea, and the town will become full of movement.

And that is precisely why

I do not want busyness to take this summer away from me.

I want to notice the morning light.

Feel the wind.

Look at the sea at sunset.

Find the moon when night comes.

I do not have to solve everything.

I can take responsibility for what is mine,

and let go of what is not.

And through it all,

I want to remember what it means to be here.

Summer in Yaeyama does not begin

when the work is finished.

It is already here, inside the day itself.