Representative's Column・Reference Column/Shoto International Pre Scool in Shibuya

■I want my children to be happy.

I thought hard about how to convey this thought. I am sure that adults want them to be happy. But...there are so many sad, lonely, and disappointing things that we don't want to hear or see, that we wonder if they don't want us to want them to be happy.

But that can't be true, everyone wants to be happy, so maybe we just don't think about what happiness is. So please think about it with me.

Then let's think about happiness and see.

Happiness is not a thing, it is not money, it is something you feel in your heart, something you cannot see. The things we can see are easier to understand, but sometimes the things we can't see are more important. I believe that what we feel with our hearts enriches our feelings and makes us kinder....

In the human body, there is a vessel. This vessel is for love to enter. It is the heart that creates love. When the heart is moved, it becomes love and accumulates in the vessel one by one. When it accumulates a lot, it overflows from the vessel, and what happens when it overflows? You become very kind.

When you are kind to people and things, both people and things return the kindness. I like to think that the love in the vessel never diminishes, but sometimes it does. That is, when I am very tired, when I have a bad day, or when I am sad, I cannot be kind. When that happens, the love in the vessel is decreasing.

In such a case, look for emotion. You will feel the vessel fill up again, little by little, starting with small things. That's right. Love is born out of emotion. When you have a heart that can feel many emotions, love will gather in abundance.

Through this job, I receive emotion from children every day.

For example, children who debut in the care room for the first time cry a lot. There is no way they can enjoy being suddenly separated from their moms and dads and left in the presence of children they don't know and their older sisters they don't know. It is natural for them to cry because of anxiety and loneliness. Even adults feel uncomfortable in the presence of strangers until they find a place to stay. I think it's just because they are adults that they don't cry. When these children become a little more comfortable on the second day and smile and accept us on the third day, I am moved to know that we have created a place in their little hearts where they can accept us. It makes me very happy. Their smiles have the power to make me forget even the most difficult and sad times in an instant. It gives me more and more strength to protect these smiles.

When a flower blooms, I feel beautiful, and when I see something beautiful, I feel wonderful. When you have a heart that feels many such small emotions, you will be moved by things you never paid attention to before. You will want to be moved more and more. Please try it. It's a wonderful thing.

I believe that human beings are born to feel a lot of emotions.

So...I wish to be moved as much as possible.

Children's hearts are very pure. That's why they are moved by the beauty of a flower on the side of the road or the cuteness of a dog walking by. Maybe as people grow up, they somehow forget and become shy about being moved.

This is how I found happiness.

And finally.

If adults are not happy, children are not happy.

Let's find emotion with the children. Children are very good at finding emotion. And they give us a lot of emotion.

We live on the earth. Children are people of the earth on this wonderful land called the earth. I hope that they will grow up slowly and healthily to be adults who feel a lot of happiness. These are children who will protect this precious earth.