The Season of Death and Life

In  front of Akahama elementary school of Ootsuchi City in Iwate Prefecture.
One day after working at creating a veggie/flower garden at the back of the temp housing, I halted in front of the school by the mesmerizing beauty of sakura in the heartwarming spring sunshine.
"Snow is growing out from the trees!"  I thought to myself.
Wind from the ocean breezed through the sakura branches, and the petals showered like snow in a winter day.  Standing in a pink wind of flowers, there are no words poetic enough to describe the dazing beauty of the moment.

I scoped up a handful of pink petals from the ground, I thought of Jesus' parable of a kernel of wheat. Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains as a single wheat. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
The fallen flowers blend with the earth, and the earth carries its fragrance. Is it the flower or the earth?  It really doesn't matter anymore.  Petals fallen decay over the bitter winter, and become fertilizer for the tree in springtime.    
One God, One Spirit, One Church -- if we can give ourselves to one another, we are One.  We gives, so that one another can become more.
Lying down oneself for one another.  This is the love of Christ.

Sabbath: Rest

Sorry for not posting a vacation note earlier!  

Yum is out of Japan and will be back at the end of April.  Please leave a message! Beeep~ 

Back to Hong Kong and Toronto, saw my cat tigger's orn, sapping the peppermint tea I have left here half a year ago, spending time with my family... but the most of all, absorbing the quietness in the air of the Northern sky.  Simply let my soul rest and allow the thoughts and experiences sink in and filter...

Sorry if I don't get to see you, although I do miss you :)

3.11.2012

311 Anniversary Memorial Ceremony @Kamaishi, Iwate 

Long, long official ceremony, swamped with bureaucratic titles and resounding words.  It almost took the life out of the people who were attending it.
I would rather mourn you in the snow, where you used to live.
Nonetheless, the most moving part of the ceremony was the beautiful singing of the children's choir.  It brought tears to my eyes.

If the happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

                                    ~Judy Garland, Over the Rainbow


Fallen like a star, you who cannot fly over the rainbow anymore.... rest in peace.
We will remember.

Haiku by the Seashore

March 1, 2012

There is a little temporary grocery shop beside our work base at Ootsuchi Akahoma elementary school.  The shop owner is a gentle artistic soul that loves to draw and write poems.  He treats us free coffee everyday.  It is a life saver when it is minus zero and snowing!!!

One day in Feb, a Haiku was written on the board.  It says,

In March
People who are to be met in dreams
Are plenty

Did you lost many friends?  I asked him. He nodded.
His original shop was actually right beside the ocean.  When the tsunami came, he made all the customers run and when he finally was going to flee for his own life, the water already came.  He had no choice but to hang onto a tree.  The water swallowed him and the tree.  He was actually under the water for a few minutes, or at least he felt it was.
It is truly a miracle that I am still alive, he said.
Although his family was fine, the land that he was once familiar has lost its landscape and the people he knew.

I look forward to have the volunteers come everyday, he said.  I think I did it more for myself.
Sometimes, when the snow is heavy, the Ootsuchi team will call off the work for a day because the land will be frozen.
He said, on one of those days when I don't see the bus arrive in the morning, I would think to myself, 'ahh, maybe they are not coming today...'

Snow day today, and Ootsuchi team is called off.
I thought of the lonely shadow in the small shop as I looked out through the window.
It would be a quiet day today.

On the Road

Deep in the fog.
Mountains become splashes of ink on thin paper.
Into the picture we go.

Bag

http://unoproject.exblog.jp/12314725/

Disclaimer: This is not my bag.  

It belongs to an awesome friend I met when volunteering at Magokoro net.   In the past two years he has been volunteering as a teacher in an elementary school in Mongolia.  He just came back to Japan not long ago. 

In a jist, his blog entry talked about this bag that he has been using for the past three years.  It is sturdy, despite of the heavy load it has been carrying.  Parts worn out at times but after some needle works, it's as good as new.  It was loaded with pencil crayons, notebooks, dictionaries, scissors, camera, passport copy, teaching plans and water etc, as he traveled from place to place in the yellow wind of dust in the far far land.  

This bag is still running around with him in the disaster area. 

I am neither a person obsess with brand names nor hating it. The craft work and material quality of some brand names are well deserving.  Just that nowadays most buy for the name or trend without making the full use out of it.  Chinese has a saying, "Killing a chick using a butcher's knife for a cow".  I think probably most brand name products are wasted in such a pitiful state.  

When a brand name product met an owner that uses it for the purpose it is made for fully, what a rare and wonderful thing it is for both!

On the side.

I have had a retired "companion" bag too.  For almost 7 years, it has been to Kolkata India and over half of Japan with me.  One time one side of the strap broke off suddenly, just as I was about to leave a house to catch a bus.  I had no choice but to delay abit to do some patch work.  The short stay was a story by itself.   

When it was at its final stage of life beyond repairable, I couldn't manage to throw it away.  It is still sitting quietly on the shelf of my closet.  One day when I get home, I should take a picture of this old friend and show you here! :)

The Wait

Sun rises and night falls,
The little horse sits in silence watching
cars zoom and people trickle by.

I passed by it everyday
A little pat on its head is all I can give.
One day, maybe one day you will be gone when I come, I said to the little horse.
Maybe your owner will come pick you up and take you home.

The little horse continues to quietly sit.