In yesterday's blog, I mentioned shelves had been cleared to make room for my art supplies, and they'd joined the other Japanese books in my stepmother's study. One of those books was by a quadriplegic artist, Tomihiro Hoshino. I began skimming it, since one of his books was featured as our church book of the month, but I found I couldn't put it down. The book tells how he was paralyzed from the neck down when injured while
teaching junior high gymnastics. Should he just die? But then he learns to paint with his mouth and shares delicate floral drawings and heart-searching poetry touching countless lives. I laughed and cried through the whole book. Yes, the entire thing! I'd read it from cover to cover!
And I didn't realize Sunday night, an online notice would show that Tomihiro Hoshino, after God had used him to bless millions with his drawings and inspirational poems, was finally Home. Alongside his photograph was one of his watercolor cherries, and below it, in his "mouthwriting": "What I do may be small. But if I can give thanks in it, it's big."
I suppose it can be doing a mundane task OR it can be accepting a meaningless tragedy, like life without the use of your limbs. I hope I'll be able to say "Thank You", whichever that may be. (Honestly, June?)
Okay. Lord, you know I don't have the heart to say that readily; so please work there to change me, ok?
Tomihiro leaves behind a wife...no, they didn't have any children!
