…apprenticing with Shinji Suzuki! Are hats are off to you, Matt, this is a huge week for you!

If any of you remember the ridiculous, stressful stories from my book Post-Dated about the life of the apprentice, well, how anyone could have done that for nearly 8 years is simply ASTONISHING to me, and it makes me smile, too. I hope those stories might give you some sense of how momentous an event this is for Matt.

Matt joined us briefly at the last March Seasonal, and here are a few photos of his visit:

In total surprise, Matt Reel called me this week from a taxi in Japan, asking if I’d be around the next day. I was, and so were my Seasonal students, so in his first day in the United States as a free man did some bonsai work—after just finishing his 7 years and 9 months…