Time to get you Cultured

Curiosity can lead to great discoveries.
My friend was using this pencil board the other day. (A pencil board in Japan is a thin notebook-sized plastic board usually with a design or photo that every student, and many adults, carry to put under paper to write on.) She showed hers to me, and it had a simple poem in Japanese on it:

The poem reads:

I want to love Anything and everything,
no matter what
Even green onions, tomatoes, and fish
Without exception I want to love them
My family's meals, everything
My mother made these things
I want to love
Anyone and everyone, even him
Even doctors and ravens
Without exception I want to love them
The people of the world, everyone
These are things God made


This simplistic yet profound poem led me to search online for
more about this poet.
Her name is Misuzu Kaneko, and even though she led
a tragic short life, she wrote these uplifting poems.
She is from the prefecture I currently
live in, but didn't gain fame until her poems were
discovered in the 80s (she lived in the 1920's). Now her poems
are popular with the young and old, so many of her poems are
published in elementary textbooks. I ended up searching around
and bought a pencil board of one of her poems myself. I chose
a different one from my friend, though. Here's the one I chose:
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Me, the Small Bird, and the Bell

Even though I stretch my arms
I can't fly in the sky at all
But the little flying bird
Cannot run quickly on the ground like me
Even if I shake my body
No beautiful sound comes out
But the ringing bell doesn't know many songs like me
The bell, the small bird, and me
We are all different, but we're all wonderful

What a nice poem to remind you to accept yourself and cherish the differences. I hope I'll remember to read this poem in times where I feel I don't belong or fit in here.