Fall Run Sing Dance

Being a unique blossom means having no fear of your own originality.



The autumn breeze blew throughout the day. During this morning's run, I re-established my stamp of feet into the worn pavement, the wet alleys between rice fields and the loose gravel lining the nearby canal. Today was a run to the North, in my continuing ceremony of run cycles that move in the cardinal directions, clockwise. The next run will head toward the East, the one after that toward the South and so on.





My body was rejuvanated with oxygen as my muscles worked in their blood-infused motion. I began to float above the morning dew, stirring my spirit with the aromas of cedar, mixed flower frangrances and earth. I wonder what kinds of dreams remained in people's minds as I jogged past their houses. I felt so refreshed when I woke up at 5, yet I don't recall the happy dreams that I saw.


All of this comes in the seasonal change to fall, a cool flush of rain and cloudiness that has dropped temperatures and relaxed the bodily burdens of sweltering summer heat. I am grateful for this change and also for the next challenges that will come with this school term. I have several students entered in speech contests before year's end and I've worked out a steady practice schedule with all of them. Their speeches or skits have been translated from the original Japanese to English and we are well under way with getting them on their feet.




I only hope I can do justice to my students' tremendous self-confidence and courage by guiding their natural talents to cumulate in splendid presentations. Each one of them has a knack for musical instrument perfomance. They're all members of my school's brass band. It's my task to channel that energy into use of their own sound, literally, their own voices. This is when they truly discover the communicative value of English as a language as opposed to just its testable grammar.


In the meantime, other brass band members have requested that I perform the song "Thriller" by Michael Jackson in the school culture festival coming up next month. What a welcome challenge! Michael's voice is quite high, something that I'll do my best to emmulate, but a range that I'll definitely have to accustom my vocal chords to. Probably, the entire band will be using the "horror" theme of the song for costumes and such. I have to wait and see what their plan is for the show.




"Thriller" by Michael Jackson

Once a stone is finely polished, there is nothing left than for the diamond to shine. And so we all will.