While my friend was visiting us, I heard about our common acquaintances. I met my friend at the Lakota tour. I was there as an interpreter, and she was attending as a tour customer. I participated the tour three times. Twice in 2006 and once in 2007. Since my last tour, I haven’t contacted with the tour people. My friend on the other hand, still keeps in touch with the tour organizer; my former employer.  

I was surprised to hear their age. The tour organizer is 60 years old, and the tour host is 75 years old. Their age stopped in me at the time of the last tour.

It has been 12 years passed. On my second thought, no wonder everybody has aged. I have aged too.

I received a phone number of the Lakota tour host and called him on the phone.

His voice sounded exactly same as the last time when we talked. We chatted for 10 minutes or so. He updated me of his 12 years, and so did I. We both were surprised of our updated news.

It was very nice talking with him after such a long year absence. I hope one of these days I will be able to visit him in Lakota land again and introduce my family to him.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Last month I didn’t have my monthly period. It was supposed to come on August 14th. Today it finally came back with a 3-weeks delay.

My first period came when I was 14 years old. Since then, I had my monthly period come regularly except for 3.5 years of my pregnancy and lactation. I kind of liked it, because of its cleansing process. After the monthly period, I would feel lighter physically and mentally.

Starting from early of this year though, my period had started its irregularity. One month it came one week early. The other month it came one week late. This time it came at three week’s delay.

I understand I am in the menopause process and it is a natural process for my age. I also understand my monthly period will eventually disappear from my body function.

I want to write about my honest feeling about it.

I feel sad and scared about the transition. It is natural to feel that way for any kinds of changes, right?

Simultaneously, I feel relieved and happy about the transition.

Here is the reason.

I am becoming back to the same condition as a child, who is not influenced by male/female hormone. It is beyond the gender difference of male or female. It is “it” rather and “he or she.” To think back my childhood days, I fully enjoyed being “it.” I had many friends of boys and girls. I was free from gender.

I am happy about the menopause process because I am in the process of getting back to the “it” condition again.

All in all, I guess I am happy and excited about this transition. I should enjoy this process.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today was a national holiday celebrating Labor Day. My family and I spent a day resting without doing anything specific.

We are still feeling tired. Maybe it is from the long drive. Another reason is the elevation difference.

We just came back from Navajoland where the elevation is 6,836 feet (2,084 meter). The place where we currently live is 4,400 feet (1341 meter). The oxygen rate is thinner in Navajoland than our current home base.

From curiosity, I looked up the elevation of my hometown in Japan. It was very close to 0 feet (0 meter) because it was at the sea level. I had lived almost 40 years at the place within 10 minutes walking distance to the beach. Contrary with the environment, I am living in the mountain area in America, where the elevation is much higher than my birth town. No wonder my body took many years to adjust to the current environment.

While I am writing this, I realized how my body had suffered from the drastic environmental change. Such drastic changes include the water nature (soft water vs hard water), the air nature (humid air vs dry air), the land energy (yang vs yin), the geology (ocean vs mountain), the ambient temperature (mild vs extreme), the language (Japanese vs English), the cultural difference (closed community vs open community), and not to mention, the people’s way of thinking (there are lots of differences).

My body has been doing its best to adjust to these drastic changes. I bet it is very, very hard. I feel sorry for my body to deal with these changes. From now on, I am going to stop being harsh to my body. Instead, I will be gentle with my body and always thankful to my body.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My family and I woke up with a slightly sick feeling. Even though we kept the swamp cooler and the ceiling fan ON all night, we still felt hot inside the bedroom.

We were planning to stay one more night in Navajoland, but thinking about the fact we are feeling sick, we wanted to go back home as soon as possible.

After breakfast, we decided to leave for back home.

***

After the long drive, we were finally back home. It was around 6 pm in the evening.

I enjoyed being back home. I enjoyed a nice hot bath and slept tight in my own bed. Not to mention, I enjoyed the cool air in my own house.

***

Even though it was a very short visit and I got sick, I still love visiting my in-laws and Navajoland.

One of these days we will live on our property in Navajoland. By then I will need to get used to their extreme high temperature in summer and low temperature in winter.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I woke up in the Navajoland. It was very hot during last night. I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and I had a sound sleep, but still, I woke up with a dull headache. It was not too bad though. I still could get up and walk around.

In the morning my husband and I went to the closest town to buy an engine oil. Last night right before we arrived at Navajoland, our car’s engine oil light turned ON to inform us the engine oil’s level was low. My daughter stayed at home with her grandma.

When we came back home from the store, my mother-in-law informed us that my daughter was feeling sick. She was crying due to the pain in her head.

I noticed I was not the only one who woke up sick. Maybe it was due to the extreme heat. Another reason was not being able to take a shower. Last night when we arrived, my in-laws informed us the water heater was out of order. It was already late at night and we were so tired, we just slept without taking a shower.

Luckily we have my husband. He is gifted in fixing things. As usual, he could successfully fix the water heater.

After my daughter took a nice hot shower and got refreshed, I gave her Reiki energy. I also gave her some homeopathic remedies and Kusuri-e energy. Within 20 minutes, she got completely well. We were all relieved and thankful that she was now feeling better.  

***

My in-laws and my family went to the flea market. After we enjoyed the traditional food of mutton stew and fry bread, we walked around the stores. It was fun, but the temperature was extreme high. We all were feeling very tired.

***

By the time when we came back home, I felt really sick. After I threw up, I had to sleep for several hours. By the time when I finally could get out from bed, it was already 10 pm in the night.

***

I hate being sick, especially during the fun trip.

This year I often get sick and throw up.

I remember of my 12-years cycle. According to rokusei-senjutsu (六星占術), I am in the year of Kenjaku (健弱). It is the year of the detoxing and cleansing from the previous three years. I guess it is okay for me to get sick and throw up once in a while. I am in the process of releasing toxin and unnecessary old energy.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We are visiting Navajoland for the Labor Day weekend to spend time with my parents-in-law. As usual, it was a long drive. It usually takes us around 9 hours to get there.

My parents-in-law gave us the official map and approval documents for our homesite. They said the procedure was almost done. There will be one more final document to be arrived.  

Our first step was taken on 4/15/2017. We started choosing the land we liked. We measured one acre and marked the line. It was a slow process. It took them more than 2 years and four months to reach at the final procedure.

Once it is all done, we will need to think about building something on the land. They said, if we don’t build anything within three years, they will take the land away from us.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had a dental filling appointment. The dentist fixed two tooth. One was my upper left, next to canine, and the other was my lower left, next to canine.

The bottom one had a small cavity because the old filling was broken. The upper one did not have a cavity, but because the old filling was broken, it had a small crack.

Both re-filling procedures were not major ones. All the process was done within one hour, including the numbing the nerves part.

Now I am happy that the both re-filling procedure was nicely done.

I am definitely happy that I had a second opinion for that. My first dentist insisted he needed to put a crown for the upper teeth, but my intuition didn’t agree with him.

It is always good to follow my intuition. It is my life and my body. I need to be responsible making for all the decisions satisfactory with my intuition.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I went to the local laboratory. At this laboratory, people can order a lab test on their own, even without a doctor’s order. Each test fee is clearly described in their official website, and their fees are affordable.

Beforehand I made an appointment and ordered the tests online. I ordered two tests. One is called “Expanded Health Profile”. It contains checking on Heart (lipid panel) and Liver and Kidney. The other one is hemoglobin A1C.

***

The great thing about this lab is its quick process. By the night I received the result.

My numbers in the category of Liver/Kidney (CMP – Comprehensive Metabolic Panel) were all within the good range.

My A1C (The hemoglobin A1c) was 6.9%. My last one of this April was 7.3%, so it was improved by 0.4%. It is not a wonderful number but I am happy for its improvement. It is within the green light, which is 6.0% to 6.9%.

As for my numbers in the category of Heart (Lipid Panel – Cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL, LDL, VLDL), I also had a bit improved. The numbers of Cholesterol, HDL, and LDL were within the normal range. However, I still need to work on lowering Triglycerides and VLDL. They were still very high. The triglycerides was 313, which was supposed to lower than 149.

In order to work on the triglycerides, I will intake one large spoon of apple cider vinegar before the breakfast every day. I will start this habit from tomorrow morning.

I am planning to take a next lab test at the beginning of January next year. I hope my daily effort of taking apple cider vinegar every day will show some improvement in the number.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had my 10th acupuncture treatment with my first acupuncturist. I had an acupuncture treatment 7 times with my second acupuncturist.

Before I left my house, I made a firm mind on not to talk anything about my personal life negatively. It will affect my health. I don’t want to talk anything about my health and my family, and I don’t want to hear my acupuncturist’s speaking ill of my family or commenting her negative opinions. I know from my previous experiences, that none of them was helpful.

***

At the treatment room, I was successful on not talking about anything negatively. As usual, my acupuncturist asked me a series of routine questions including about my parents and family. I stayed calm and didn’t say anything. I just calmly replied back to her that everything is good and stays the same.

Before the treatment, my acupuncturist performed her usual diagnosis of my pulse and tongue. She said everything got stronger than my previous visit, which was three weeks ago.

Now I finally learned. I should stay calm to any kinds of questions. I don’t necessarily need to answer to all of her questions. I am in charge of talking care of my body. I should eliminate whatever my body reacts negatively.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I watched a Japanese animation movie Tokyo Godfathers (2003).

At the beginning when I started watching it, I was overwhelmed by the drawings. They were a bit grotesque to me. I continued watching it anyway, because I liked the voice actors and actresses. They were acting well.

The storyline was amazing. Watching this movie is like a riding a roller coaster. The three main characters escort the audience to a whole bunch of different emotions; laughter, joy, depression, sadness, and anger.  

I am not going to write down the detailed story here, because I don’t want to spoil people’s fun part in finding out the ending. What I can emphasize here is that it was a great movie. I loved it. I really would like to recommend many people to watch this movie.

It contains lots of spiritual aspects.

The baby is described as the one who attracts all the holy coincidences and good lucks.

I interpret the baby as a symbol of spirituality or God within us.

Once we fully believe in us; the God within us, we start feeling the life is nothing but fun. We should cherish everybody and every event we run into in our lives. Because indeed, everything and everybody is in fact connected each other.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪