Once upon a time, there was an old house that no one lived in.
One day, a traveler passed by this house. The traveler found a flower in the garden of the house. It was a pretty flower, but it seemed a little wilted.
The traveler watered the flower. The next day, the traveler came back to water it again. The day after that, he watered it again. As he watered the flower every day, the traveler began to live there before he knew it. He thought that when the flowers had grown strong, he would go home.
The house was quite old, and there was nothing in it. But the traveler liked the garden very much. Sometimes he felt lonely, but he was happy just by seeing the beautiful flowers in the garden. The traveler found himself living this way for ten years. The garden became lively, but at the same time, the traveler grew old. He could no longer remember the way home.
What is love? This is a difficult question. The poet Auden once said that love is something that “we can't compel or fly.” We can't love someone out of a sense of duty, and sometimes we “accidentally” love someone, even if we didn’t intend to. I think this is true. In other words, love is, in a way, automatic. I don't know if what the traveler arrived at is love or not. But the traveler “accidentally” lived as a gardener, and at least he accepted his destiny.
This song was written by my older daughter's kindergarten teacher, and with her permission, I arranged it into a piano piece. I asked some friends to listen to it when I was working on the album and to be honest, they all said it was the best song in my works. This is my album, but what shines brightest is not my songs but the songs I arranged, written by others. As a gardener, I couldn’t be happier.