Natsumi used to be a rising star at the young woman’s magazine she worked for. When she gave birth to her daughter, however, she was sidelined. Bye-bye, editor-in-chief position! In What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, Michiko Aoyama tells Natsumi’s story.
Now, Natsumi struggles both with the demands of being a mom and those of being an “average” employee in the research department. One day, she visits the local community center library in hopes of finding new children’s books for her daughter. Natsumi has an unexpected chat with the librarian, Ms. Komachi, who shows her a new perspective.
After acknowledging what a big event it must have been for Natsumi to give birth, Ms. Komachi shows here the other side is commendable as well: “While I do believe that it was hard work for my mother to give birth to me, it also took me every ounce of my own strength to endure the extremely difficult process of being born. After all that time inside my mother’s belly growing into a human being with nobody to guide me, all of a sudden I was thrust into an entirely new and strange environment.”
Natsumi is baffled. She had never thought about it that way. “Imagine what an awful shock it must have been to come into contact with air for the first time, not knowing where I was,” Ms. Komachi continues. “Of course I’ve forgotten what that felt like now. But it’s why, whenever I feel happy or glad about something, I count my blessings and think to myself, Now, wasn’t that worth all the effort of being born?“
We do a lot of hard things in this life. We hurt our bodies during work and exercise, and then we must heal them. We face constant difficulty in dealing with other people, and, many times, we want to give up. Sometimes, we do, and then, later, we might regret that. We overcome hardships related to money, disease, and our social status. But is any of it tougher than the strange, violent yet beautiful act of being born? What if we’ve already done the hardest part?
“Being born is probably the most difficult thing we ever have to do,” Ms. Komachi asserts. “I am convinced that everything else that comes afterwards is nowhere near as hard. If you can survive the ordeal of being born, you can get through anything.”
The pain of birth gives us tremendous power to endure. But even more so than that, it also gives us the ultimate power to enjoy. It’s not just that after the ordeal of being born, we can get through anything. We can also appreciate everything. The sounds of nature surrounding us. Our daughter’s smile when she finally goes to sleep. Even the jealous comments of a colleague who wishes they, too, could leave work at 5 PM.
Life is just the gravy on top of the privilege of coming into this world. Taste every spoon to the fullest.
