It is 10th day since I sprained my ankle. Even though I could walk around from the second day, my right ankle had stayed being swollen. It had a slight pain every night.

Finally last night I noticed my ankle was free from swollen parts and pain. So it took me 10 days to completely heal my sprained ankle.

I am thankful that my body healed by itself much quicker than normal. I am also thankful that I didn’t need to take any over-the-counter pain killer medicine. I took only homeopathy remedies and Kusuri-e to support my body to heal naturally.

***

When my daughter came back from school, she was upset at what happened to her at cafeteria.

Her school cafeteria offers three or four different lunch options for students to pick. Students make an order in the morning and receive a ticket for the order. 

Today’s lunch menu was one of her favorites; a walking taco. My daughter ordered it and gave the ticket to the lunch lady. However, the lunch lady refused to give my daughter her ordered food as usual. Instead, she gave her a tuna sandwich. The lunch lady said she cannot give her a taco because it contains cheese (contains milk in its ingredients.)

It was weird. At every first day of the school year, I submitted the note to school cafeteria. She cannot drink cow milk and cannot eat peanuts, but she can eat cheese products and ice cream. As a matter of fact, the cafeteria has served cheese related foods for these past five years. She has eaten a walking taco many times previously.

Her teacher witnessed everything because she was beside with my daughter when the incident happened. However, the teacher didn’t do anything to stand up for my daughter. Later on, the teacher told my daughter that she does not want to get fired. She repeated she needs the job to pay for her bills. It sounded to my daughter that her teacher was trying to justify herself by saying that kind of excuses. It’s sad to hear that her teacher cannot stand up for her students.

I received a phone call from the school nurse. The lunch lady justified herself by saying she just followed the guideline book. Now, the school nurse tried to convince me that the lunch lady didn’t do anything wrong.

***

I honestly didn’t want to disturb the school principal, but I needed to get his attention. It seemed to me he is the only one who can solve this issue.

 I went to see him in person at school. I am glad the principal understood me clearly. He promised me he would solve the issue.

***

I personally don’t like going to see the school principal for any kinds of complaints. But all in all, it was good for me to practice speaking up. I guess this is how parents are disciplined on speaking up in order to protect their children.

In the evening I had three unexpected visitors in my house.

It was one of my friends; the mom and her children. Our daughters used to go to the same school and they were classmates. That was how I met her and became friends with her. Her family and my family became friends.

The main purpose of her sudden visit was to deliver an invitation card to us for her Halloween party. I thanked her and told her we would go to her party on Halloween day.

***

After she left, I noticed I was surrounded by unpleasant energy field. I analyzed of my feeling. I noticed two reasons.  

First reason was their sudden visit. I don’t like any sudden visitors at my house in any time frame. No exceptions. They stayed for a while even after I mentioned that I was busy preparing for dinner.

Second reason was their invitation to the party. We attended to the party three times in the previous years. This party is related to her religion. She and other guests believe the same religion. All of them strongly try to change our religion into theirs. They ask us the same question over and over again; why on earth we don’t believe their God. Every time they handed a candy, it came with their religious pamphlets. Their children read the passage out loud to us. They took pictures of us and posted them in their SNS accounts. It seemed like we were the same religious believer as them.

After I analyzed the reasons, I clearly noticed what I should do.

I talked to my family about my honest feeling. They agreed with me on not going to the party. I got relieved. I could cleanse my uncomfortable energy field.

***

I thought I should share my experience with you. Some of you might have hard time to say No to others, just like me. But we have to be honest with our inner self in order to maintain our inner peace.

Some of you might wonder why I didn’t communicate with my friend about my honest feeling just like I did to my family. I have my good reason for not doing so, and it comes from my personal experiences. 

I communicate very well with my husband and daughter. Even though we sometimes have different opinions, I feel comfortable to discuss and communicate with them. There is unshakable trust and unconditional love with them, which we have built years together. 

On the other hand, I do not necessarily communicate well with others. Even with my long term friends, I don’t. Because, I don’t need to change their belief. That is their business, not mine. That is how I respect their boundary and their free will.

I had an interesting dream. I was with my parents at their house in Japan.

Both of them were happy and cheerful. They talked like small children who are always full of energy and laugher. They both told me they have been working on decluttering their house as their end of life project.

My dad said to me “Look what I did” with his sparkling eyes just like an excited little child. He took my hand to the bathroom. He said “Ta-da!!” He opened his both arms wide in front of the bathroom. There was no toilet, but only a hole. We looked at each other’s face and laughed out loud.

My mom said to me “Look what I found” with her sparkling eyes just like my dad. She took my hand to the living room, where all the furniture were completely gone. There was a pile of pictures. They were my mom’s pictures of her younger days. In each picture, she posed like a popular celebrity. She was smiling happily in every picture. She proudly told me she was ready to get rid of them.

They both told me that they are doing very fine and that they are enjoying their life together.

I am glad to know that.

Every time I visit Japan or watch Japanese shows, I am astonished to see how skinny Japanese people are. They are very, very thin, compared with American people.

Today was not exceptional.

I watched the Japanese TV program of the “undoukai” (sports day) show. The participants were 54 comedians. Each participant is shown with his/her age, height, and weight. Many men are taller and lighter than I am. The average of them is 170 cm tall (5’6”) and weigh 58 kg (128lb), while I am 160 cm tall (5’3”) and weigh 60 kg (132lb).

What I was drawn to pay attention was the leader male comedian. He is 165 cm tall (5’5”), which is shorter than average. His weight is really jaw-dropping. He weighs only 50 kg (110lb).

One of the athletic events was Kibasen. Three people carry one person on their shoulders as a “general.” Each team fights to get the cap from the generals on the opposing team.  

The skinny and short male leader participated at Kibasen three times He carried even a heavy female general of 68kg (150lb).

His contribution to his team throughout the sports day reminded me of Yang energy in macrobiotic theory. He is full of yang energy.

I thought Japanese people are like him. Their small bodies consist of infinite power and intelligence. I am in awe. They are venerable and honorable people.　

My family and I went to another haunted house two nights straight. Yesterday’s one was presented by the local community college so we needed to pay for each booth. Today’s one was presented by the local Fire Department and the community so that everything was offered completely for free of charge to everyone.

We visited this one last year. We liked it very much. We knew it was well organized just like last year.

They didn’t betray us. It was a real fun. Same as last year, this event was supported by many local volunteers.

Their main event was its haunted house. They decorated and arranged the entire building of Fire Department into a scary haunted house.

We needed to wait in a long waiting line to enter the haunted house.

What the cool thing about the local event was that we see our neighbors here and there. The family standing before us lives in the same street of ours. The family standing behind us lives in one street away from ours. Our kids go to the same school. They are all friends.

***

While waiting in the line, we started chatting with our neighbors. For these past several days, I didn’t see the man who lived with them. The mom is a single mother of four children. The man started living with them two years ago or so. I don’t know what the exact relationship with the mom. Probably he was her boyfriend and a dad for their new born baby.

This man was very gentle and friendly. He told us he was looking for a job, so we exchanged our phone numbers. We wanted to give him any information of job opportunity for him.

What the mom told us was shocking.

According to her, the man is a two-faced. He is friendly and kind to others outside. That was exactly what we thought about him. However, behind the door, he is abusive and cruel. He gets out of control whenever he gets drunk. He had beaten her and her children. The mom got the authority involved. Now the court issued an official restraining order to him so that he is not allowed to come closer to them. At least I am glad they are now protected by law.

Although I have known him and talked with him for these two years, I never noticed his hidden personality. I wonder how we can notice the other people’s true face.

Her story was scarier than the haunted house. All in all, living humans can be the scariest beings than anything else, right?

As usual routine, I left my house at 5:30 a.m. to the grocery store. Unlike summer time, in this late autumn, sun was not out yet. It was dark outside. This morning was much colder than the previous several days. The lowest temperature of this morning was 9C (48.2F). Our area is not that bad at all.

Whenever I have a cold weather in my area, my in-laws has an extreme cold weather in their area. The lowest temperature of this morning in their area was -7C (19.4F). Even the highest was low as 2C (35.6F).

These facts really make me think twice to move back to Navajoland, even though our land is ready for us to move.

***

In the night we visited the local community college. They had a Halloween event for everybody. There were many different stands and booths for games and snack. The admission was free but we needed to buy tickets to enter the haunted house and to visit each booth. We visited the haunted house and some game booths. Their haunted house was nicely done, but pretty small and calm.

It was fun to visit them. I like this type of small community.

I had an appointment with my Japanese friend for lunch. We became friends 11 years ago.

We have many things in common. Our hometown is the same city so that we speak same Kansai dialect. Speaking the same language in the same voice tone with her makes me feel at home.

When I invited her to my first house on the military base 11 years ago, she said she used to live in house across to our house. We would have been neighbors if the time of our living there had been matched.

With these facts, I feel some spiritual connections with her. We were meant to meet each other.

***

I arrived at the appointed restaurant before her. Several minutes later, she showed up. Her appearance astonished me. She showed up with medical canes in her both arms. Her left foot was covered by a huge plastic cast boot.

I got goosebumps when I heard she injured on last Sunday afternoon. It was the same day and time when I injured my right ankle.

While she was working at her work place, she fell where there was nothing. She, as same as what happened to me, had a panic attack. Her injury was worse than mine. She heard the bone cracked sound.

I could have broken my bone. I didn’t break my bone and my sprained ankle healed much quicker than normal. I owe this good luck to my daily exercise.

It reminded me of 「人間万事塞翁が馬」; fortune is unpredictable and changeable. I started taking care of my body and doing daily exercise since I became a diabetic. Diabetes taught me a lot. I will keep having a good daily exercise and healthy food for the rest of my life, and keep appreciating to my body.

***

I had a really good time talking with her. We talked about our old parents. We shed tears together thinking of our parents. We had a good laughter together. I want to cherish the friendship with her as a long term one.

Since September 11th, I have been receiving one Japanese man’s newsletter via email every day. First I had received his health program of 33 days. Once the program is finished, the new program, reversing aging, has started.

It seems he started his first newsletter in 2012. Since then, he made a constant effort in writing his newsletters and uploading Youtube videos. Now his works are accumulated to a huge number of them.

As a result of his daily effort, I can see a huge difference between “previous he in his starting point” and “current he.” He looks younger than before. His way of writing and talking got improved than before. All about him proves one evidence.

Hard work does not betray.

While I am writing this, I got goosebumps.

It is an A-Ha moment of the reason why my late friend’s visit.

Two days ago, my late friend visited me in the dream. She showed me her success was the result of her hard work.

So, she came to me to convey this message. It was a great reminder.

I appreciated to my late friend and my new friend whom I recently connected through the Internet. And as always, I appreciate to my family spirits to always keep loving me and supporting me.