I had been building my own nest.
No, to describe correctly, I had been brushing on paint to my nest.
Moving from Kamakura to the foot of Yatsugatake and creating a new base has been a big project for my family over the last few years.
I met people who built (had been building) their own houses steadily here.
Although I had a longing for such a house making, it was actually difficult for us, but nevertheless, what we chose to do from what we could, was to do “painting”.
The exterior walls, interior walls, floors, door fittings, wooden fences outside, a wooden utility pole in the parking space…we did the painting on our own as much as possible.
Using various paints & coatings such as house paint, oil and diatomaceous earth, I continuously devoted myself to painting everywhere for the last six months, and I was even laid up with exhaustion because I worked too hard.
However, every time as we repaint them, we felt like we had become more attached to our house.
Many people helped us and got involved, and after spending in a temporary residence over a year, we finally started a new life from last month.
While we are getting our lives back to normal and now that we have the property fixtures, I think that the true nest building starts from now on.
Dyeing and weaving were originally part of our daily lives, and that was a part of reason I was attracted and chose this work.
Although I knew that in my head, I was so focused on work in my 20s and 30s that I had left behind the “daily life” somewhere. (well, I know now that I needed those time too…)
But when the child was born and moved our base to the Yatsugatake, and the environment changed, it became more difficult to separate the daily life and work.
It’s funny that I can be more active than before even though my daily life comes together with many things.
This may be because one’s wisdom, ingenuity, mechanism and rhythm of everyday life that are created from a pressing situation, are firmly linked to “to live on”.
Actually, there were already inhabitants before us.
The swallows built a nest under the eaves of the entrance, raised chicks, and all of them fledged out the other day.
While I felt happy for them, I missed them too and I thought “now I know how it feels like to watch going out into the world.”
I hope to build a nest for ourselves in this place to raise our child and for my work to go out into the world from this time on.
