February 16, 2025

I found myself mesmerized by the heavy rains we experienced here in Los Angeles on Thursday. It’s been a while since we’ve had a real rain. I was reminded of some kindergarten students I witnessed when I was visiting an elementary school back in 2017. It started pouring rain, and all of the kindergarten kids ran to the windows to marvel at it. The teacher said, “Friends, let’s get back to our seats. It’s not like you’ve never seen rain befo . . .” Then she stopped, and realized that California had been in a brutal five-year-long drought, and that no, these 5-year olds had never witnessed a real rain before. She let them stay, look up at the sky, watch the drops pound into the earth, and be astonished at the wonder, the beauty, and the power of rain.

I wrote about being astonished in my first post of 2025. That motivation came from a short poem from Mary Oliver that many of you enjoyed:

Pay Attention
Be Astonished
Tell About It

It was part of my recipe for looking to make my days as perfect as possible. After I wrote that post, my friend Janice encouraged me to watch the movie Perfect Days. I had never heard of it, but I had the time and watched it. There is not much dialogue, and it’s certainly not an action flick, but what a movie! Director Wim Wenders’ movie follows a man named Hirayama, who lives by himself, and spends his days at his job cleaning public toilets in Tokyo. He is a man of tremendous focus, and he lives by his routines. But what struck me most was the way, in his moments of rest, he would purposefully look up at the trees. Through Hirayama’s eyes, we too saw the sunlight, wind, rustling leaves, and the interaction between all of them. I later learned there is a Japanese word for that interaction – komorebi. For Hirayama, the komorebi created indelible images of beauty and inspiration that occupied his days and even his dreams.

Cleaning toilets is not a job that many aspire to, though there can certainly be purpose and honor in all work. But what inspired me throughout the movie is Hirayama’s tendency to look up for inspiration. The only time he looks down is when he has to focus on a job. It’s a good reminder for all of us – looking down too much makes us miss out on beauty in the world, and leaves us with a sore neck in the process.

There’s too much looking down these days. Most of it is phone related. Whether we are walking, hanging out, or even driving, people are looking down at their phones out of habit, boredom, and a lack of desire to be stuck in their current situation. It’s too bad. Nature, neighborhoods, and cityscapes offer so much more inspiration and opportunities to be astonished. Looking down is the body language of the dejected. My favorite musical, Les Miserables, opens with the prisoners singing,

Look down, look down
You’ll always be a slave 
Look down, look down,
You’re standing in your grave

Kind of strong, I know. Sometimes we have to look down. Jobs and tasks require focus; if your nose is to a grindstone, you’re working hard, looking down, and that is the right thing to do. But if you’re looking down when you don’t have to, you’re not engaged in a conversation, you’re not seeing the world’s beauty or its obstacles, and you might be missing out on something new, even if you’re looking at something very familiar. 

I’ve been reminding myself to look up as I’m out and about. When I’m walking my dogs at dawn these days, I enjoy looking at the trees, at the debris dams in our canyons that protect us during heavy rains, at the yucca plants that are starting to bloom, and at our golden hills that will soon be turning green from our recent rains. Dawn is the only time we can hear the waves crashing on a beach almost 1 mile away. I’ve always loved sensing the world at dawn. There’s a quiet, a stillness, and promise for the day ahead. My crazy dogs are very lovable on dawn walks, mostly because no other dogs are out walking. Duffy and Maggie Mae are terrified of other dogs, and tend to make life miserable for everyone by barking when they spy a dog 50 yards away. Dawn creates a scene that is safe, quiet, and beautiful for all of us. I return from those walks with happy dogs, and usually feeling a little better than when I left.

There’s a lot of fear, anger, hate, and negativity in the news these days. I am not advising that we ignore it. But we all need moments of light and beauty in our lives. We won’t find it looking down. Make time each day to look up. Find solace and energy, and maybe allow yourself to be astonished by  the stars, the aligned planets, the komorebi, and all of the ordinary things you walk by each and every day where you can find extraordinary beauty.

Post #127 on www.drmdmatthews.com

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Notes

I add these notes sections for a number of reasons:

• First and foremost, many of you are crazy enough to read them.
• My posts are long enough, so believe it or not, I do try to limit them. Ideas that don’t make the cut can end up in the notes section.
• I include additional resources, links, stories, for those of you who want to go a little deeper.
• I may include something from the comments made in my last post, or something I learned in the process of writing this one.
• And remember, the posts are long enough – no one is making you read the notes. (Dad – If you are going to critique me for how long my posts are, please stop reading now. This is the optional part!)

Not to be hyperbolic with this comparison to today’s world, but somehow Anne Frank, sensing the world crashing around her, found inspiration and hope by looking up. “I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better.”

The idea for Perfect Days started as a documentary about some of Tokyo’s most beautiful public toilets that were designed by leading architects. I don’t think I saw any of these while I was there one year ago. But what I did notice, and did write about, was that everything was so clean and there was virtually no trash to be found anywhere. Maybe that’s because of people like Hirayama who take pride in keeping everything so spotless, but it’s mostly because of citizens who take pride in their environment and for whom littering is not even a thought.  For a look at some of these toilets, check out this link. 

Sometimes when Jill and I are playing in a heated pickleball game against our neighborhood rivals/friends, I’ll be ready to serve and I’ll look over at Jill. I have to stop because she is looking up and staring at four hawks circling above us in our canyon. While I appreciate her awe at the wonder of nature, I have to let her know that it’s time to stop looking up and to focus on the task at hand. I get an eye roll, and her eventual focus. This post is probably a mistake, as now she’ll remind me about it whenever she is gazing at nature. Oh well. Those hawks are amazing.

If you’re a subscriber, I’ll be sending out a Mid-Month message next weekend. It’s been 11 weeks since my knee replacement, and I’m feeling so much better than before. I have my 12-week visit with my doctor on Friday, and I hope to hear that I can resume some of the sports and activities I love. So I’ll be writing about that, and some of my recent experiences that you might be interested in. Subscribe here if you want in.

Pictures of my dogs walking at dawn, and the neighborhood hillside, debris dam and yucca blooms taken by me on my iPhone 12 this morning.

Picture of the Komorabi taken from a great article, What is Komorebi, written by Kat Nicholls in Happiness Magazine. You can find the article and photo here.