Today is May 22 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you realize that when you come out of the storm you are not the same person as before?”
Haruki Murakami is a best-selling Japanese author with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country.
Murakami began to write fiction when he was 29. "Before that", he said, "I didn't write anything. I was just one of those ordinary people. I was running a jazz club, and I didn't create anything at all."
He was inspired to write his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979), while watching a baseball game. In 1978, Murakami was in Jingu Stadium watching a game between the Yakult Swallows and the Hiroshima Carp when Dave Hilton, an American, came to bat.
According to an oft-repeated story, in the instant that Hilton hit a double, Murakami suddenly realized that he could write a novel. He went home and began writing that night. Murakami worked on Hear the Wind Sing for ten months in very brief stretches after working days at the bar.
He completed the novel and sent it to the only literary contest that would accept a work of that length, winning first prize. After his first publication he continued to write and has written over 12 books.
Murakami is also a serious marathon runner and triathlon enthusiast, though he did not start running until he was 33 years old.
Haruki Murakami wrote “The storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
How often do you realize that when you come out of the storm you are not the same person as before?