Out of Japan’s Tsunami – A Giving Heart (and a Nuclear Power Facility warning)

Jinkspots subscribed to Soul Dipper – 1 1/3 years ago.  Jinkspots?  What a unique name.  I flashed over to find out who and what this blog was about.

My first impression?  Intelligence, creativity and spirituality.  She instantly cut a path into my heart.

She lives in Japan.  I don’t know how she met her Japanese husband, but they now have two gorgeous children: a son and a daughter.  Our connection has felt profound.  We don’t make a big deal about the synchronicities, but we acknowledge the effect when they happen.

My intuitions sent up a flag one day.  Her blog would be silent for a while, she said.  The news sat like a pebble in my soul.  Thankfully she responded when I reached out.  I learned that Jinkspots and her family decided to leave their home in Japan, an area too near faulty nuclear plants – not far from most of the Tsunami’s devastation.

Officials in Japan declared the damaged nuclear plants would resume operation.

One doesn’t have to be a scientist to know those plants simply cannot be safe.   Jinkspots could not fathom having her loved ones exposed.

Giving up familiarity, family and friends, the small family pulled up stakes and traversed to the opposite side of Japan.

They’ve successfully made the transition and are settling into their new community.  She’s been baking chocolate cakes and brownies to help support the family income.  A couple of weeks ago, she said she wanted to send me something in the mail.  She took my breath away.  In the throes of a major adjustment after making a significant move across Japan and working tirelessly to build a new life, she wants to send me something?  Being at a loss for words, I simply teased that her brownies likely wouldn’t make it through the post.

Her parcel arrived today.  Carrying it from the postbox to my house, the sum of all my internet purchases held little thrill by comparison.  I had to savour this treasure. After a morning of yoga followed by an aquafit class, I’d first shower and have a nutritious lunch.  Then I’d open this delicious surprise.

Sound serene and yogic?  Ha!  I raced through my ablutions like a 5 year old having a birthday party.

I want to show you what she sent!  Let’s start with a couple of pictures:

Jinkspots’ parcel. The green frog and the two turtles are gifts from a local friend who I love dearly. They hold deep significance. Thus I chose them to privatize my address.

Come on! Get that letter opener working!

Oh look!  Another package. And a letter!

Thank you, Jinkspots for your permission to share this letter:

Dear Amy,

I trust this finds you well.  I had a thought this morning, as we connected through time, space and possibly as-yet unnamed, other dimensions:  I want you to have a piece of the Sea Jewellery.

The Sea Jewellery was a project that began 2 days after the earthquake on 3.11.2011.   Two days after it happened and we – the entire nation, too – was still in shock.  It was a beautiful sunny, Sunday morning.  I needed to go outside, to touch the earth and the sea.  To reconnect.  We went to our favourite beach from where, on clear days, you can see Mt. Fuji, more than 100 km away.

The sea was calm.  Small, light-kissed waves gently stroked the shore.  Such contrast to the black monsters that had engulfed entire villages just 2 days before.  I stood in the water and felt the earth’s sadness.  Tears streamed down my face as, facing the shroud-clouded Mt. Fuji, I opened my heart to the ocean and poured my love into it.  I stood there like that for a long time.

Later, walking on the beach, I began finding lots of small pieces of old pottery and glass.  They had been in the sea for a long time, so smooth were their edges and I guessed they had been churned up from the depths by the recent activity and deposited on the shore.  I couldn’t help but pick them up.

As I did so, I became acutely aware of threads of connectivity coursing through me: with empathy for those directly affected by the disaster a mere 300 km north of me: with love and respect for the people in the past who had once used and cared for the once-pots, cups, bowls and plates, the remainder of which I now gathered.  They felt like gifts from the sea, as if she was trying to say sorry and I wondered how I could use them to help in some way.  The idea formed there and then to restore the broken pieces to beauty, to help reconnect those presences from the past with their descendents who now suffered so much, as well as with the beating hearts of those around the world who cared enough to be able to tune into such things.  I gathered more than 100 pieces that day.

I asked my friend, a Japanese jewellery designer, if he would help me and together we designed these pendants.  They were on sale in the U.K. last year in a jewellery gallery in Plymouth and a few months ago they were taken up by an Art Gallery in Liskeard in Cornwall, U.K.  We have raised more than ¥100,000 ($1,000 Canadian and US Dollars) for a Children’s Charity in Tohoku with the sales and hopefully, we’ve been able to help others to also reconnect, with their own hearts, their own histories, with the children their money will help and with us, the makers and facilitators.

Feeling the strength and potential of our connection, I’d love you to accept this pendant, the last one I have left here in Japan.  Made and sent with love from Japan, may it help to power you on your path of purpose, and serve to remind you how important your work is, and how very much you are loved and appreciated.

The postcard is of a woodblock print by one of my favourite artists – Hasui H – shows Mt. Fuji, a mountain of great power, wisdom and serenity.  May its image in your home help to imbue you with those qualities, too.

I love you because somehow, in your busy online life, you took time to recognise the best in me and you have never hesitated to give recognition to that.  It means more than I can say.  I’ve been thinking recently about the relevance of giving the very best of yourself away.  I’m composing my next blog post in my head about this as I write now.  I will try to upload it to coincide with your receiving this.

So sorry!  No chocolate brownie or shortbread in this package 

☺  But a whole lot of love and some hastily scribbled lines which will, I hope, brighten your day and fill your heart.

Best wishes, love & light to you, my dearest of friends,  (Jinkspots)

Phew…what a letter! Now I know what’s inside – a pendant and a woodblock print by a very talented artist.

A quick little peek inside!

Oh look! Mt. Fuji! And what a sweet little bag.

Look at these treasures.  I will frame the woodblock print!

Even this delicate paper looks handmade. I wonder…

There’s the Pendant. Jinkspots has sent me “soul” from Japan. Layers of history. Layers of goodness. Layers of living and loving. All in the color of a healthy ocean and sky.

Look at the artistry of the cord’s design. THANK YOU, Jinkspot, for these gifts. This brings up soooo much…beyond you and me.

I wanted the Pendant to sit beneath Mt. Fuji as I checked its whiteness and smoothness on the reverse side.

One delighted recipient! ♥♥♥

Jinkspots managed to do what she said.  She finished her latest post.

I see why she was keen for me to read it.

It’s a message the world needs to hear.

 People in positions of TRUST are downplaying the threat of damaged nuclear plants:

“People outside of Japan may not be aware that the disaster which occurred at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Facility in March 2011 is ongoing, that the facility continues to leak radiation into the air and the ocean every day.”

http://jinkspots.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/creating-change/