Doing the Essential Things Better
& Matsuo Bashō
Photos by me. See Instagram | See LinkedIn | See previous posts | AboutMy diabetic HbA1c level (average glucose level in the recent 2-3 months) isn’t great lately. Since November, it has increased to a higher level.
Here in Kyoto, with this frigid cold weather, my stiff neck pain has also returned.
So I am now back to heavier daily medications. Back to taking longer walks with a target to increase from 10,000+ to 15-20,000 steps daily. It means cutting down each meal portion to 1/4 bowl of rice or slice of bread (or carbs with high GI levels) even though this cold weather makes me hungrier and wanting to eat more!
During my recent travels, I have been careful with my diet. But I guess my routine has shifted. Along the way, I have also forgotten some of my Japanese grammar and vocabulary I thought I have acquired.
The body of each diabetic patient differs.
What works for me comes down to regular walks/ exercises with balanced controlled diet. The pain comes and goes; so does one’s resolve to maintain new behavioral changes with certain stoicism; and the tolerance for chronic diseases fluctuate. I guess it does take a toll on its patients, not just physically but mentally.
Sometimes, families and friends ask how am I doing. Well, I am still a diabetic, probably lifelong. But I have never felt better - because it brought me focus and has led me to the lifestyle and hobbies I now get to embrace.
More offline and more alive
As a family, we started to track our screen time each week.
The first time we did it I was surprised (and a little embarrassed) by how much I have been using my phone. Social media apps thrive for a reason with algorithms programmed to reward dopamine secretion, hooking us to a habit loop that keep us coming back for more.
My 2025 has started off all right with lots more time offline - traveling, being on the road, spending time with families and friends, learning.
I try to check emails and social media less frequently. When I feel overwhelmed, I just delete or unsubscribe from most of the emails, primarily digesting the ones I’m most interested in (Up next, I am on a mission to tackle my Instagram usage. :)
Treating my emails like a postal mailbox - checking them with much less frequency each day - has become a helpful timesaving ritual.
Steve Jobs famously said that focus is saying no to good ideas. It means “saying no to the hundred good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”
After my hospitalization, I am learning to be okay in saying no. It is a muscle to practice. Now each week, I get excited with more than a handful ideas of what I hope to write and share here. But eventually some ended up only as private notes, some remain as fleeting thoughts that came and left.
Matsuo Bashō
tabibito to / waga na yobaren / hatsu shigure
Let my name
be “Traveler” -
first rains of spring. -- 松尾芭蕉 (1644-1694)
January is a wonderful time to visit Arashiyama in Kyoto with much less tourist crowd than usual.
I recently made a return there to visit the exhibition on “Haiku and Haiga: The Charisma of Two Poets, Bashō and Buson”. Issa is another famous and endearing poet in Japan.
Nozarashi Kikō 野ざらし紀行 (Weather-beaten Bones Travelogue) is the 1st travel journal by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō. It was written in the Summer of 1684 when Bashō was 41 during his incredible journey from Edo (former name of Tokyo) to parts of Japan then finally back to his hut in Fukugawa.
He passed by Mount Fuji, walked along the river along the changing of seasons, then faced with his mom’s passing during the trip - all reminding him on the fleeting nature of life.
This travelogue firmly established Basho’s style of short-form poetry, now used in school textbooks.
Midsummer rains / cloud the stream: Yodo people / how will you make tea?
Wearing a hat and a straw raincoat, standing in drizzle, a barefooted figure holds an oar over his shoulder. This haiku refers to the Summer rainy season when rain falls continuously and the sun is nowhere to be seen.
It reminds me of dark winters of despair. In its stillness, just as one thinks that nothing is happening, tree roots are beginning to grow and strengthen.
With crisis comes clarity of what truly matters. For me, it comes down to doing the essentials better - fitness, finance, families and friends - might as well have fun along the way!
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I wish you well Peck Gee. Rest and slowing down are essential in this season. You are right about doing the essentials. 🙏🏽