 Hi my name is Chenda and I work at the Long Beach Public Library. I'm a librarian usually at the Ruth Bock Branch Library. I'm so excited you're viewing my Zen Garden program. I'll be reading a picture book Ochi-chan's Gift by Cherie Oigaki that inspired me to create a Zen Garden Kit as part of our Asian American Pacific Islander Month series. This series will highlight Asian and Pacific Islander culture, food, stories, and more. It runs from May 1st to May 29th and if you want more information please check out our website, our library's website. So this is Ochi-chan's Gift by Cherie Oigaki. So this book is illustrated by Grinoveve Sims. When Mayomi Van Houten was born her grandfather built her a garden. It sat behind a tiny brown house nearly halfway around the world and it was unlike any other garden she knew. You see the family flying to Japan I think. There were no tulips or daffodils or daisies, no carrots or cabbage or peas. Ochi-chan had made the garden out of stones, big ones, little ones, and ones in between. Some reminded Mayomi of turtles, others stood like mountains, rugged, and tall. Around the border Ochi-chan had planted pine and maple, boxwood, and bamboo and in just the right spot by a stone lantern and a persimmon tree was a sheltered bench where Ochi-chan and Mayomi had shed onigiri bento packed in a lacquered box right there. Every summer Mayomi spent two months with Ochi-chan and with each year her ability to care for the garden grew. She learned that moss on a rock was a gift of time, not to be washed away with a hose. That weeding was more pleasant in the morning and that clipping shrubs to look like clouds was the best of all reasons to prune. Raking gravel though was what Mayomi enjoyed most. She loved how the tiny rocks chattered as they passed through the rake's wooden teeth. She loved the different patterns she could make wavy zigzag and straight but rings like ripples in a pond were her favorite and when she was done Mayomi and Ochi-chan would sit and enjoy the results of her efforts in happy silence. Often when Mayomi was back in her narrow house listening to the clamor of traffic outside she would wish for the sounds she heard in Ochi-chan's the rustle of leaves or the creak of a bow or twittering bird and at times Mayomi would open up the tin that held the souvenirs from her visits leaves she'd pressed in a book until they dried as delicate as dragon wings tiny pine cones still springy between her fingertips a smooth black rock black stone that when warmed in her hand helped her to remember then one summer everything changed. Mayomi noticed the difference as soon as she arrived things in the house that used to shine were dusty and dull in the garden shrubs and trees were overgrown and dead leaves and needles littered the ground everything looked left alone. She understood now that what her parents had told her was true Ochi-chan could not live here anymore. Later in Ochi-chan's room Mayomi tried to smile while she showed him photos from the school year bird song waived and on a green scented breeze Mayomi looked out at the garden hi Ochi-chan said it's been waiting for you Mayomi-chan. After lunch while Ochi-chan napped Mayomi went into the garden and walked out onto the gravel as she stared at the rock that tower over every rock around it the tight bud of feeling that had been in her chest all morning suddenly burst open and with a rush she put her hands on the rocked brace her feet in the dirt beneath and gave a mighty shoved. When nothing happened Mayomi turned around and leaned back knees bent she pushed as hard as she could she wanting the rock to give and if it did she was going to push and push and push until the thing toppled over but the rock did not budge it didn't budge not even a little Mayomi kicked the ground hard spraying gravel everywhere she kicked again and again not caring until a rock ricocheted back and hit her on the face she froze as she noticed the mess she'd made she put her hand to her cheek and sag to the ground after a while Mayomi stood up and began raking because it was something useful that she could do and as she slowly raked the gravel back in place stooping now and then to pick up a stray leaf or to pocket a shiny pebble a tiny idea took root the next morning while her parents packed up the house Mayomi knocked on Ochi-chan's door hi Mayomi-chan he said is it lunch already Mayomi walked to where he sat and held out the lacquered bento box this feels heavier than onigari Ochi-chan said as he took it from her he grin what are you feeding me maybe mud pie Mayomi smiled and shook her head Ochi-chan set the box on his lap and after a moment he lift the lid now i've made you a garden Mayomi said Ochi-chan took her hand and gripped it tight arigato Mayomi-chan he said ono ni arigato thank you very much back home Mayomi unpacked her suitcase and set aside several small bags then she took out her tin and emptied it of her treasures the sandy gravel went in first followed by stones of various sizes placed just so she added a pine cone next and then a leaf before padding the gravel flat then using her pinky as a rake Mayomi carefully made smooth even rings around the three largest rocks and then the garden was much smaller and though the garden was much smaller and the sound was much softer if she closed her eyes and listened she was certain she could hear the pebble soothing chatter and that's Ochi-chan's gift so i hope you um enjoy Ochi-chan's gift if you want to read this book i'll share it with someone you like to read with um you can search on our library catalog and reserve the book and be sure to pick it up at one of our seven locations that has curbside pickup and then also in it um to celebrate um asian-american pacific islander month i also created a zen garden kit that's inspired by this book now when you get the bag it's going to come with a wooden plaque it's going to include some sand that you can pour out to start your zen garden and the best way to spread out the sand is to gently shake it until you cover up with all the space as evenly as you can it's a little bit of work but then the bag also have a rake it's a bamboo rake that you can use to spread the sand and create that circle or wavy or zigzag that we read about in the Ochi-chan's gift and just try to spread it out once you spread out all to the edges it's going to be easier for you to um distribute the sand next time now we after this it's up to you to find stones from your walks from your um you know if you went on a trip somewhere and you picked up a pebble or some miniature toy or you have something in your house that you want to put in your zen garden so like this story i found a little pine cone or if you like me you really liked to have like a cat you can have some little miniature cat or a tiny even tinier cat but i have this ornament that i thought i thought it was a gourd but this one it has a little hat so you can put anything you want but remember everything has balance and you can play with the rake if you don't have a rake you can also use your pinky like Naomi in the story to create little swirls or pattern and the best thing i found is that i love collecting rocks so i have plenty of rocks that's just already to be placed in my zen garden in an actual zen garden if you're interested in the history or the purpose of the zen garden or the principle behind it this book is called zen rock garden by more and you can find out in our catalog if you want to read about it has some really good um history behind it but the principle and the philosophy of zen garden and kind of like um and also i found a youtube video that the basic of zen garden by master Hideo Matsura he's really good too so a zen garden is supposed to tell a story or have a small like a bigger topic but you want to be able to put it in its simplest form so this one what story can you tell with it like it reminds me of like maybe a trip i took when we went to arizona you know i can see it and i can make up story about it but this one is one of my favorite rocks that i have it reminds me of el capitan and yosemite and i one of my favorite national park to visit and i've watched many people jump off the el capitan rock so i like that one but you can also find like this one i don't like store-bought rock as much as i like um rocks that i find around um the yard but this one i have around in my yard because we bought some rock river rock a little earlier and this one i like because it has some line that are i i thought it was scratch but they're actually lines that's very interesting you always want to have three elements so i'll put that one and maybe a smaller one so there you go so i hope you guys will um make sure you call the library to make sure they still have it because we have very limited supplies and it's why supplies last at one of our seven branches that happened to go pick up and if you also like zen philosophy or zen story be sure to check out the short series by john j muth he wrote zen shorts zen tai and zen socks they're a really good story within stories to read and if you want to know more about japanese garden design there's a section of this book japanese garden design by mark peter king that also has a section on zen garden that's it thank you for joining me and celebrating a api and be sure to check out on our library website the more programs that we have um we have from may 1st to may 29th celebrating asian american islander culture food and much much more all right thank you bye