Just like it changed mine 30 years ago
This morning I went to the wholesaler to buy flowers for 24 people. Twenty-four people who will try Ikebana, the Japanese flower arrangement, for the first time tomorrow!
Each person will use only two kinds of materials: one kind of green branches and one kind of flowers. With the minimum sort of materials, can you make something beautiful? That’s the challenge.
The people who will take my workshop tomorrow all work for a large high-tech company. I myself was working for a big IT company when I took my first Ikebana lesson, working hard every day, stressed every day.
On the day when I first walked into the Ikebana class, my teacher, who must have been younger than I am now, welcomed me with a warm smile. She taught me how to hold scissors, how to bend a branch, and on which angle to place it onto the Kenzan, a pin frog.
For my teacher, I was merely one of her many students. She must have given the same instruction many times previously.
But for me, it was an eye-opener. My life has never been the same ever since I learned the joy of creating something beautiful with natural materials.
Almost thirty years later, I no longer work in the IT industry, but I still continue learning Ikebana, now I’m on the teaching side.
When picking flowers, I just wondered… Among the twenty-four people who will come to my workshop tomorrow, would there be one who might encounter Ikebana the same way as I did? Who knows!
For that possibility, I continue to teach Ikebana. Just like my teacher has changed my life, I might change some youngster’s life. Or not. All I do is to do my best to share the joy of creating something beautiful.