About me Ayumi Matsuda
I write from a quiet place within—
a stillness I first touched in the space between life and death.
Living in Japan, I am guided by the sensibilities of kuu (emptiness)
and ma (sacred space),
where the sun and moon meet
and the faint resonance of life begins to breathe.
My stories arise from this circle:
the brightness I was given,
the depth I discovered,
and the quiet light that now guides me—
a light I hope will gently open a place within you
where healing can begin.
When I was a child, I was always described as restless—
someone who could never sit still.
Silence with others terrified me.
I felt I had to fill every quiet moment,
to make people laugh, to keep the atmosphere bright,
to keep myself safe.
But living that way,
always pouring out energy,
always performing brightness,
my heart and body slowly began to blur and fray.
Something inside me was quietly breaking.
It was then that I encountered the world of stillness.
Tea ceremony. Ikebana. Simply breathing,
and placing my heart gently on the one thing before me.
In those moments,
the noise inside me began to settle,
and a different version of myself—
one I had never met—
slowly began to appear.
This was the beginning
of my own Quiet Place to Heal Within.
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