A PINCH OF SALT ENRICH THE SWEET TASTE
A pinch of salt brings out the
sweetness. The following is an
impressive little poem written by Michiko Katoh.
Pain, sadness and sorrow on parting
Will be bitter, tough and salty,
But remember that due to these feelings
Happiness will begin to seem a sweeter.
There! One pinch and then another
Into your seemingly little happiness,
It is making your life less gloomy.
You can really feel it, can't you?
Michiko Katoh suffered from an incurable
disease, a kind of gangrene that degenerate the bones of her body. She says, "I've
kept myself 'friendly' with an irreversible disease. While I am happy for being able to walk, I
have pain in the left joint of my hip and my right knee. One time when I was dragging my left foot
behind me on crutches, it occurred to me that it was nothing but the friction
between the crutches and the ground that makes it possible for me to walk. Though you may find it hard to believe, I
found myself filled with a great sense of gratitude to this friction and to my
disease. Ever since then, the fact that
I'm handicap has become the thing that gives me pleasure in living. I can walk!
I'm still alive! I'm full of happiness!"
Many people know about the effectiveness of
a pinch of salt contained within food to make it taste sweeter. Yet few could be convinced of the paradox
that unhappiness, looked at from a different angle, can be an amplifier of
happiness.
We may meet with unhappiness at any moment
of our lives. I wish we did not pessimistically
abhor it, but rather have a positive and 'friendly' relationship with it as shown
by Michiko. Hang in there, Michiko-san!
