My Ikigai

7/17/2024

There's a Japanese word that I learned years ago, on a TED talk about Blue Zones, that became deeply important to me: ikigai - pronounced ee-key-guy. It's a word that encapsulates "your reason for being" or "your reason for getting up in the morning". Perhaps a similar sentiment to the French raison d'etre, reason for being. Cultural context matters but here's why ikigai is important to me. 

(If you haven't seen the TED talk, here it is. It changed my life, my view of what I wanted for my life and in my life. There's also a Netflix series about it, now. )

Side bar: (There have been a few things I've read and/or watched that have made such an impact that I changed the course of my life. This TED talk is one of them, and Jen Sincero's book You Are A Badass is another. I'll write about that sometime. If you feel so inclined, you could read it and get a head start!)

In regards to ikigai, the Japanese people on Okinawa who were interviewed for the research on how to live to 100 gave reasons for waking up in the morning as "going fishing a few times a week to provide for my family" or "being able to hold my great, great, great, great graundaughter". Maybe there weren't that many 'greats' but the lady was old and the baby was brand new. Regardless, even 2 greats is impressive. 

When you dig into the idea of ikigai, having a sense of purpose in your life is important, but there are unspoken parts of this that struck me. Whether these are necessarily part of the Japanese understanding of ikigai, I don't know, but from my American standpoint, and what I need to hear and learn in my life, these made sense:

• This is a purpose you've chosen for yourself. Sure, life chooses things for us at times, but what I mean is that it's not a purpose defined for you or forced upon you by someone else. It's not your mom expecting perfection or your spouse expecting a clean house and dinner. It's you saying 'this is important to me and gives my life meaning and a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment'. 

But, and…

• It likely changes. I don't know if I can say with confidence that it "should" change, but as you go through life and life changes and you change, so too might your reason for being. And there may be times when you're not at all sure of your ikigai, so sometimes you have to sit with a journal or a fishing pole or on a rock or at the top of a mountain, or maybe during a run or hike or bike ride, or on the toilet or in the shower - and figure out one little reason even just for today. But to me, the point is to re-evaluate every once in a while to make sure that you have an ikigai and that it still serves you. That it still fulfills you and fills you up.

That's what this wine bar is for me. This place encapsulates nearly all of the things that are important to me in my life at this moment:

Culture, creativity, learning, teaching, being around people, sharing space, the importance of the environment, how natural wine is made, the flavors in wine, self-employment and personal independence, and a romantic as well as business partnership with the man I love. And writing.

Each one of these topics is something I not only will bring into the wine bar but need to. I need it for me. To thrive, to be happy, to feel fulfilled. It's not at all about providing alcohol to people. This wine bar is, in many ways, the evolution of the yoga studio I owned back in Columbus, Ohio. It's something I do for myself that I then share and that, in turn, reflects out to the community.

My personal goal, intention, and need is to write one blog post a week about something that falls into one of those important things I listed above. (I'm very intentional about the words should and need anymore, you'll find.)

Between now and the day we're able to get into the space (and there's no hard ETA at the moment though it was supposed to be the end of May '24) and once we eventually open, I hope to share lots of stories, pictures, and information with you! My hope is that you feel like you know me and what to expect even before walking through the front doors.

Some basics: My name is Burgundie Miceli but that's a lot so I go by Burg. I was born in Columbus, Ohio and lived there until I moved to Missoula, Montana at age 43 in 2020. In 2023, my partner Clint and I moved here to Petersburg for his job. Once this wine bar opens, I'll finally leave the world of healthcare IT that I've been in for 24 years. I owned a yoga studio in Columbus, had a little one in Missoula, was a massage therapist for a bit, self-published a book on Amazon about my experience with my mother as she declined through dementia (Darling's Dementia), and am working on my MFA in creative writing. We've got three cats, or they've got us. And I love dry red wine, preferably a Saint-Emilion Bordeaux.

Deeper dive: Upon reflection, if I were to strip away the need to be able to make money and a lot of other extra things, there are two very simple things that truly not just get me up but excite me to get up every morning.

First, writing. Not only do I love to write, but I need it. I write everyday; in my journal, a part of a story, a blog post. My thoughts, my ideas, my characters.

Last, and probably, for the time being, the brightest spot in my life: my little cat Sera. She needs meds twice a day for seizures. Whatever it is that causes her seizures (apparently cats don't have epilepsy) will shorten her life. Because I medicate her twice a day, I get to hold her close to show her I love her so she isn't too upset about the meds. Because her neurological disorder may shorten her life (but who really knows when anyone's last day will be anyway), she is precious to me. She brings a smile to my face every time I see her. This quirky little tuxedo cat brightens even the worst of my days. Yes, I wake up to medicate her, but I love to wake up to her chirps and weird ways every single morning.

Sera, My true ikigai