Morning arrived before sleep had quite finished.

In the quiet of early Nara — when only birdsong fills the air — a question came to me:

"How does one become truly kind to others?"

Thinking back, the kindest people I have known were not those who had led easy lives. They were the ones who had known hardship — who had been wounded, who had struggled, and who had kept going in spite of it all.

And then I understood.