For the past several days I felt sweaty and dizzy at home. It says a swamp cooler does not work properly during Monsoon due to high humidity and I had been silent. But today was extremely uncomfortably hot inside the house. My husband and doubted if the swamp cooler does not have enough water. When we sprayed enough water onto the swamp cooler pads, it finally started producing cool air. So we confirmed it was some issues in the pump to feed water to the cooler.

We contacted the realtor about the issue. Thankfully in the evening her husband came to our house to check the cooler. He noticed the water level of the swamp cooler was set to the lowest and it didn’t have enough water. When he set the water level to the highest, the cooler started working properly. I appreciate him for fixing it right away.  

In the morning my friend delivered some fresh produces grown in our community garden. It was nice of her to think of us. I cooked some for dinner. They gave us good energy.

***

In the early afternoon I had a doctor’s regular checkup appointment. This time was different from the previous ones in two aspects.

The first aspect was they started a questionnaire that the nurse asked me to input beforehand. One of the questions included my natal sex and current sex, and my sexual preference of the opposite sex or same sex. It also asked me how I prefer to be addressed on either “he,” “she,” or just by name only. I was surprised at these open questions. It will be helpful for the people who felt preciously uncomfortable and now these questions might reduce some of their stresses, I hope.

The second aspect was their method to see a patient. Starting from last March, due to Covid-19, the clinic had not allowed regular checkup patients to come in to the office. Our checkups had been held only online through Bluejeans app. For this appointment however, the receptionist asked me if I wanted to see the doctor in person in the office or not. I still like seeing the doctor online instead of going to the actual office, so I set up the online meeting. The receptionist told me now in Arizona, all the businesses were back to normal. We are not mandated to wear a facial mask or to keep the social distance anymore. I still like being careful so I still wear a facial mask in public and try to stay away from people anyway.

The regular checkup itself was done quickly. Since my Hemoglobin A1C result was improved, the doctor kept on telling me to keep it up on whatever I have been doing. She believes that I have been taking all the meds that she prescribed and that my health has been improved due to the meds. I didn’t tell her that I had stopped taking all the meds long time ago, and I have been making efforts on controlling my diet and incorporating new types of exercises such as running on the treadmill and rowing on the rowing machine. From now on I will stop seeing the doctor. Instead I will regularly check on my lab test at the local walk-in lab.

I received two emails from my new reiki friends. One was to inform us that our reiki teacher was discharged from the hospital and ready to continue his teaching tour. She informed us the first information of his getting a stroke was a mistake, but she still does not know what exactly happened to him to be sent to the ER by an ambulance. The other was to explain and apologize the inconvenience of yesterday’s reiki sharing. She was late logging in to the meeting, and other people had a tough time to join the meeting. I was not the only one who could not join the meeting. I guess I will be able to join on the next meeting without any issues. It is fine with me in any ways.

***

Since the 4^th of July celebration, my weight and glucose level got bumped back and I have been working on calming down on them. I think the main cause of the swinging up was the food and drink I had on the cerebration party. I had one bottle of coke and a bunch of watermelon slices. I normally don’t drink a sugary drink and be careful of the amount of watermelon, but on the cerebration party, I didn’t pay too much attention. I will need to reduce the food intake and add some extra workout to get rid of them from my body.

Today started off reading one email from my new Reiki friend in Australia. She let us know that our Reiki teacher had a stroke in Moscow while he was teaching. He was at this moment in the hospital resting. And she asked everybody to send our teacher a distance Reiki.

I sent him Reiki energy. I felt he is missing his Japanese family and wants to go back home in Japan. I sent prayers for him that his wishes will be heard and taken care right away. 

While I was meditating about my teacher, all of a sudden a block of thoughts came in. it was about the Reiki Originator; Mr. Mikao Usui. He passed away from a stroke while traveling to another area. I always feel the strong spiritual connection between Usui sensei and my Reiki teacher. I don’t think it as a just coincident that their birthday is just 4 days apart. I feel my teacher is now in the state of Anshin-Ritsumei 安心立命 where he is calm and ready to accept his destiny on whatever comes.

***

At 2 p.m., I tried to attend the Reiki share group on Zoom. One of my new friends invited me to the gathering, but I could not enter with the error message that the host has not approved me to join the meeting. I contacted the host if this is the right time or not. She quickly replied back to me this was the right time, but she still didn’t approve my entering to the meeting. I thought I should give up. Everything happens for reasons. Maybe I should not join this gathering today. It is fine with me.

Today’s dream; I was at a cerebration park with my family and friends. Some of them were not familiar in my physical world, so they should be my family spirits. One of them showed me a huge beef steak that they were about to cook for us. It was so huge that the person spread his both arm wide open to hold the steak meat. The beef looked like Kobe Beef and my favorite part; sirloin with moderate fat. Then I woke up.

***

While I was watching a movie; Navajo Springtime (2002), I happened to see my dad-in-law in the film. He was building a Ceremonial Hogan in our homesite. It was nice to see him in his younger days; probably he was in his late 40s or early 50s.

***

I read the following two books.

Rainy’s Powwow written by Linda Theresa Raczek and illustrated by Gary Bennett. I like this story. The Grandmother shared her experiences as a Powwow dancer. She touches Mother Earth with her moccasins tenderly; touch-step and carries the fan of sacred eagle feathers to send prayers for all the world. I miss going to Powwow to feel their different energies gathered. Maybe I can visit some in next year when the current situation calms down.

Native American History for Kids: With 21 Activities written by Karen Bush Gibson.

My husband woke up the earliest of the family because he needed to go to work. I noticed he made unusual sounds in the kitchen and stayed there longer than usual. Then he came to me getting ready to get up from the bed to report the unusual accident.

He told me when he went to the kitchen in the morning, the first thing he saw was the flooded kitchen floor with liquids. He noticed the liquids came from a watermelon sitting on dining table. The watermelon was not broken or exploded, but the juice leaked from the watermelon and fell onto the kitchen floor. We didn’t know exact reason for this. I am doubting if the watermelon was already old when my husband bought it from the store just a couple days ago. I noticed the oldness of the watermelon right after he came back from the store. I could tell it because the skin of the watermelon was very light fading color. When I held it, the skin was so soft. It felt like paper thin. I asked him to select a flesh watermelon by choosing a fresh watermelon with the vivid colored skin. You can feel the freshness when you touch it anyway.

***

From the later afternoon to night we spent at the local park where our local community presented a 4^th of July celebration. We had lots of rain in the early afternoon, so that we enjoyed the outdoor cerebration started from late afternoon ended in the night without rain. We joined the cerebration after my husband came back from work. It was nice to go there because the waiting line for the food distribution died down by the time we got there.

My former coworker found my husband and beckoned us to his table. He was with his wife and they seemed to be enjoying having us as their company. So far so good, until the moment they showed us a tall coffee cups with their huge grin. My smile got frozen when I heard them bragging about their tall coffee cups were filled with strong liquor. And they started smoking a cigarette just in front of us. We hurried up pacing our food and left their table as soon as possible. I hate eating something with breathing in cigarette smoke. Other than that, we enjoyed chatting with our neighbor friends, our favorite librarians, and friends there. I understand a whole bunch of people drink alcohol at the 4^th of July celebration and drive back. I hope they will think twice about the danger of drink-and-drive and stop doing that.

***

I read the following three books.

The Stone Cutter and the Navajo Maiden written by Vee Browne. It was a heartwarming story that a young Navajo girl went through. She broke he late mom’s grinding stone and looked for somebody who can fix it. Instead of fixing it, the last male elder gave a new set of grinding stones to her. It reminded me of my daughter’s Kinaaldá. Our family didn’t have a set of grinding stones and we could not afford to buy a new set. We borrowed the set from one of my husband’s aunts. Since her set was a sturdy and spacious set, it seemed for my daughter to grind kernels of corns easily. We should buy a set of grinding stone one of these days.

Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path written by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by S. D. Nelson.

Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back: A Native American Year of Moons written by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London and illustrated by Thomas Locker.

We spent differently as our Saturday routine. Instead of going to canyon hiking, we slept in and relaxed in bed in the morning. After morning walk, we took care of our backyard by pulling weeds. For the past couple of nights, we had plenty of rain so that the soils got wet and soft. It was easy for us to pull some weeds. There are some types of weeds are very hard to pull because they root firmly to deep inside the ground.

It is fun to observe our okra baby plants growing little by little in our garden. They sure like the rain water.

***

I read the following four books.

The Legend Of the White Buffalo Woman written by Paul Goble. I have read his book before but it was good to re-read it again.

We Are Water Protectors written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade. I enjoyed looking at the beautiful illustrations. This book taught me the Ojibwe culture; women as the protector of water and men as the protectors of fire. Even though my support is small in my daily life, I keep supporting to protect water and Mother Earth.

She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader written by J.G. Annino and illustrated by Lisa Desimini. I didn’t know about Betty Mae Jumper. This book taught me about her life and contribution to her tribe as one of the first female tribal leaders. She was born about 10 years before my parents. She was born for a Seminole mother and a French father. Some of her tribal medicine people at that time were against of intermarriage with whites and threatened the lives of Betty Mae and her brother. I felt good when I read the part Betty Mae had an opportunity to heal the person who tried to kill her in her younger days. I admire her to perform unconditional love to her former enemy.  

Bowwow Powwow written by Brenda J. Child and illustrated by Jonathan Thunder. This book is written in two language; English and Ojibwe. The author created a YouTube video for both language. Even though I don’t know any words in Ojibwe, just listening to their language in her video soothes me. It was a great book especially for her tribal children.

Today’s dream:  I was in Japan with my Reiki teacher. I participated their healing tour in Japan. My family; my husband and daughter, attended with me too. We enjoyed the healing session together. We also enjoyed going in a hot spring together. I thought my family spirits are suggesting me to participate my Reiki teacher’s class in Sedona in October. On the last zoom session, my Reiki teacher showed him concern about Tokyo Olympic 2021 in this month. Even though 80 percent of the people oppose to have it, the government stubbornly is not going to cancel or postpone it. All we can do is wait and see what is going to happen through the Olympic.

***

I read the following three books,

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story written by Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal. I enjoyed the texts and the illustrations. Even though I cannot eat lots of fry bread for the health reasons, I love eating it occasionally.

The Very First Americans written by Cara Ashrose and illustrated by Bryna Waldman. It was a very brief history of Native Americans and easy for small children to read and understand.

Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story written by S. D. Nelson. I really enjoyed reading this book. It contains a big volume of information. I learned how Hidatsu people used to live in the daily life. I was amazed to know their wisdom on how to preserve vegetables for winter. They had an underground storage chambers called cashes and preserved dried vegetables and beans. I really love and admire this author’s illustrations. I found in the author’s note that there are two more books about Buffalo Bird Girl. I am planning to read them too.

My husband’s new company offers normal benefits to workers. Today we can finally apply for insurances we have been waiting for. The application procedure was more complicated than we thought and took almost all morning to go through by calling the agent a couple of times. Before noon everything was done and we made a dental cleaning appointment.

***

In today’s meditation I talked to my family spirits about how I feel about my dad. When I started the conversation, I noticed I have so much anger to my dad accumulated and that is why I don’t call him very often even though I think of him and pray for him every day.

In the morning I registered my daughter for the second part of the summer school. She was happy for that, and I am happy that I will be able to enjoy my alone time for another 14-days in next month.

***

I finally finished reading the book; Tall woman: the life story of Rose Mitchell, a Navajo woman written by Rose Mitchell. Since it is a thick book, it took me 11 days to read through.

I want to show my high respect the two women; Tall Woman and the editor. I was amazed that the author Tall Woman for remembering in details of most of the events in her long life starting from her very young days to very old days. I was also amazed that the editor for her patiently listening to Tall Woman’s story and putting all the information in this book. This book contains lots of data for her family in a big volume of the appendix and notes. This book serves like an encyclopedia about family history for her family.

I was surprised at the fact that Tall Woman had 12 children and she was 58 years old when she had her last baby.

I also was surprised at the fact that it took for this book to be finally published in 1999, which was 22 years after Tall Woman passed away. In those days, there should be much more tiresome procedures to get approvals from all the family members and edit.

Thanks to the advanced technology, we are blessed that the publishing procedure in the modern age has gotten much easier than before.