Last night I could not fall asleep right away. I worried about my mom. Even in my dream, I kept thinking of my mom.

I decided to ask my parents if they want me to come back right away or not. So, I called my parents’ house again.

This time, my dad picked up the phone. My mom was not at home; she went to the grocery store.

I started talking with my dad. I always like talking with him.

Even though he is 80 years old, his voice still sounds young and his way of talking was very clear and to the point. He explained to me what happened to my mom.

My mom hates hospitals. I am totally with her. I want to avoid going to hospitals as much I can. Anyway, my mom had started having heavy coughs. According to my dad, it started four months ago. My dad suggested my mom to go see the doctor and have a checkup. My mom stubbornly refused the idea.

It was only recently when my mom agreed with my dad’s idea and went to see the doctor. Then the doctor told her she might have to have a surgery on her lung.

My dad suspects it might be lung cancer. My dad told me not to worry. He told me to trust the advanced medical technology.

Last year my dad’s younger brother (my uncle) was diagnosed as lung cancer. He had a surgery. Unlike old days, nowadays lung cancer surgery is done much simpler and quicker than before. The surgeon pokes three tiny holes to get rid of the bad part. I don’t know exactly how they do in details. If I hear the details, I might faint. Anyways, my uncle had the surgery and stayed one week in the hospital. Now he is back to his healthy normal life.

My dad also mentioned about one of his close friends. They have been friends for many years. I also know him well. He just had the same surgery recently. It happened just yesterday. My dad is sure his friend would be back to be healthy too.

With these stories, my dad successfully calmed me down.

I offered my dad I can go back to Japan for a while to support them. He was happy to hear that. He told me to wait for the result. After the result, we can discuss it again. If the surgery is simple and quick, I can wait until October to visit them. By then, my mom will be back to be healthy again.

It was really great to talk to my dad. I am grateful to be his daughter. He is smart and stays calm in any situations. He can talk in the most effective ways to calm people down. And, I was happy to know he still has many life-long friends.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I read some news about my hometown in Japan. They went through a heavy rain warning for these two days. The historic heavy rain caused rivers overflowing, landslides, and flooding on low grounds. The news reported at least 30 killed, dozens missing, and more than 1.6 million evacuating their homes.

I feel sorry for the people who went through this disaster. The people who live in this area had gone through tough months after the big earthquake in 1995. I know how they feel worrying about their loved ones’ safety. I know how uneasy they feel to spend nights in the public shelter with many other people, evacuating from homes.

Deep inside, I knew my parents were safe. That being said, I watched some photos and pictures showing many places that are close to my parents’ house, I started worrying about them.

I emailed my mom asking their safety. As usual, my mom didn’t reply back to me. She often says she is not good at typing text on her cell phone.

I called my parents’ house right before we went to bed. It was our 8 pm, and their noon time.

My mom picked up the phone. Right after she recognized my voice, she apologized for not replying back to my email. Her voice sounded very tired and sick.

When I mentioned about the heavy rain news and asked their safety, she said they were fine. She told me though, their house was not in a good condition. There are many spots of rain leakage from the roof, all over the house. They put heavy blankets here and there to catch the rain water for now. They will need to hire somebody to fix the roof once the weather calms down.

My mom mentioned she is going through a bigger issue than the house. She has been very sick these days. On this coming Tuesday, she will need to go to the bigger hospital to have a detailed physical examination. All she knows at this time is she will have to have a surgery and stay in the hospital. She does not know how bad it is.

I cheered her up and made her laugh somewhat. After I hang up the phone, I told my family what I heard from my mom. I could not fall asleep for a while. I had cried for long. I felt sorry that I was not be any help at this moment for my parents.

At least it was good that I called them. My mom always doesn’t tell me any bad news through emails. If had not called them, I would not have known anything about my mom’s surgery.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today was a national holiday; Independent Day.

Our local town offered a cerebration party at the park. We started swimming in the pool. The pool was open for everybody today with free admission. It was very hot day and we enjoyed swimming.

After swimming, we went back home and took a nice hot bath. Then, we went back to the park. It is convenient that the festival park is just 5 minutes’ drive away from our house.

At the park, there were several booths of popcorn, grilled hot dogs, chili beans, and ice cones. There are also game booths of face painting, brush pairing, balls, toys, and so on. They were sponsored by local businesses and the Town.

Every foods, drinks, and games were free of charge, except for the dunk tank game. They charged $1. Unfortunately I didn’t have cash with me, so I could not play.

I never saw the dunk tank game in Japan. I often have seen the dunk tank in America. It is used in parties and fundraisers. It consists of a large tank of water. On top of the tank, there is a collapsing seat. A volunteer sits on the seat. A player throws a ball to a target. When the ball strikes the target, the seat falls down so that he volunteer drops down into the water tank.  

Today’s volunteers were the police chief and the mayor. These two men were cheerful and friendly guys.

At the center of the park, there was a music band. During one of the songs, the singer shouted to everybody “Are you proud of being American?” and many participants shouted back to him “Yeah!!”

I got goosebumps all over my body. I was touched.

I’ve never experienced the exact same situation in Japan. It probably won’t happen in Japan. I am pretty sure the majority of Japanese people are proud of being Japanese, though.

Being proud of the nationality you are born in is wonderful. We all should be proud of ourselves including all the conditions you chose to have, before you were born. You are the part of your country. Same things can be said to others too. We all should respect others exact in the same way as we respect ourselves.

All in all, we all are holy. We all deserve to receive respects from ourselves and others.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning in my dream, my daughter and I were visiting my mom in Japan. We stayed at the nice hot spring hotel. The next day we went to Japanese garden.

It was a beautiful garden with lots of healthy green trees and plants. The water in the pond was clear blue. I felt it was a morning in summer.  

***

Then I woke up from my dream. It was a relaxing dream. I felt we all were healed in some level.

I still vividly remember all the colors. The clear blue in the sky, the pure white in the clouds, the lively red and yellow in birds, the beautiful greens in tree leaves, and the sparkling clear color in pond. And all the people we met in the garden had sparking pure clear energy around them. My mom, my daughter, and I had the pure energy too.

For some reasons, the people, whom I met in my dream, kept on telling me the word “Kenrokuen Garden” over and over again.

Kenrokuen garden is located in Ishikawa prefecture. This garden is known as one of Japan’s “three most beautiful landscape gardens” The other two gardens are Kairakuen in Mito and Korakuen in Okayama. Many people consider Kenrokuen the best of them all.

Maybe my mom is thinking about visiting Kenrokuen with us. I remember my mom has been there once and she liked it very much. I have never been to there before. Maybe my mom is suggesting me to go there sometime.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

One of my good friends shared her recent experience.

Her mother passed away. She was 91 years old. My friend’s dad had passed away 30 years ago. Since then, her mother had lived by herself. Her last sickness in her kidney put her in the hospital. She had been bedridden in the hospital since the beginning of this year. The pain was unbearable, and the mom started telling her daughter (my friend) that she wanted to leave from her body as soon as possible.

So, my friend knew her mom’s last day would come soon. Upon her mom’s death, she could somewhat cerebrate her departure. She had been okay after the funeral.

After the funeral and some paperwork procedure, my friend got a cold. She couldn’t get rid of the cold for two months or so. It made her body weak and sick. She had suffered from extreme pain in her throat and bones.

She said everything finally started calming down.

She probably had accumulated lots of emotions without knowing by herself. Her hidden emotions needed to come out in some ways. She needed to rest well her physical body along with mind and spirit.

Seeing somebody off to the spirit world is a tough task. Especially in the case when the departed person is your parents.

***

While I was listening to my friend’s experience, I was thinking about my dad.

My dad used to tell me in my younger days, that the most important filial piety for a child is to live longer than the parents. He started saying this to me even when I was an elementary school kid. When I was young, I would laugh and told him not to worry. I naturally thought I would live longer than my dad.

Thinking back to those days, I understand better than before, on why my dad said that to me.

My dad was born before the World War II. Everybody at that time was poor, surviving day by day. My dad went through before, during, and after the war. He has so many tough challenges in his life. His dad passed away when my dad was very small. My mom went through the same way. My mom’s mom died when she was two or three years old. In my parents’ generations, they could not take it for granted to live healthy and long life.

I want to live longer than my parents as they wish. I know it is going to be a very tough task to see them off to the spirit world, but I will eventually do the task.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I cannot believe we’ve already reached to the later part of the year.

So far, for the first six months of this year, I have been working on recovering my good health. I started muscular training on the daily basis on March 28th. I also started going to acupuncture treatment on May 2nd. With my acupuncturist’s advice, I started taking Chinese medicine herb tea since May 17th.

It was a bit hard for me for the first couple of days to make this as routine. Once it became my daily routine, it is easy for me to stick with the routine.

I am glad that I started something new in this year. I will continue doing this good routine for the rest of my life.

I am sure “future-me” will appreciate to “current-me” to have achieve this good daily routine. It is a long term investment to myself.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today I went to the state capital city again. Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles offered a visit service for us. Today was our second trip to receive my new passport.

Same as the last time, the Japanese staff members dealt with the procedure swiftly. I am always impressed with their politeness and smartness.

I am glad that I won’t need to worry about renewing my passport for the next ten years.

***

After my chore, we went to LEGOLAND. It was my daughter’s strong suggestion. She insisted we should go, because we don’t have LEGOLAND in our area.

We arrived there 10 minutes before their opening hour. At the ticket area, there was already a long waiting line. After waited for 20 minutes, we finally could buy our tickets. Then again, we needed to wait to enter the facility again for some more minutes.

Right after the entrance, they took a family picture individually. Then, certain number of people could proceed to the next room. At the next room, there were four home theater screens with several game controllers. The door connects to the next door was automatically closed, so that nobody could go to the next room.

The next room was connected to somewhere. In the isle, we needed to wait again for a while in the waiting line. I started feeling annoyed for the long waiting.

Finally, we saw the next room. It was actually a ride just like Disneyland. The family could ride individually in the cart. There was a laser gun for individual customer. As the cart moved, we could shoot the bad guys with the laser gun. When I hit correctly, the gun vibrated and the score was showed in front of me in the small screen.

It was so fun. I fully enjoyed the ride. My daughter and husband sat in front seat. Their scores were much higher than mine. That means they were having fun. I was happy for that.

After the ride, we didn’t need to wait anymore. There was a huge rom with many different areas where we could visit as we liked.

At the time when leaving, we fully enjoyed staying there. We would visit there again for sure.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I took my daughter to the dental clinic for the routine dental cleaning. Before we go to the dental clinic, we always pray for no cavity. So we did, as always.

The hygienist cleaned my daughter’s teeth. After it was done, her teeth was sparkling white.

The dentist is a young male. He always puts a happy smile on his face. I wish I could go to this dental clinic, but this is only for children under 18 years old.

After his checkup, the dentist put his even bigger smile on his face and told her “Yay, no cavity. You are doing pretty good.”

We were so happy to hear him saying that.

So far, my daughter has done well. No cavity so far.

When I was at her age, two of my front teeth were black with cavity. Other adult teeth came out yellowish. They were brand new, but unfortunately, they were far from sparkling white from the beginning.

Among my generation people, in Japan, the yellowish teeth was kind of common. I was not the only one. I think it relates to food that our moms took during their pregnancy. Or, it might result from the food that we ate those days. Something was not that good, I guess.

The color of teeth and the health of teeth have been my inferiority complex for my entire life.

I truly hope my daughter will keep her sparkling white and healthy teeth for her entire life.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning I woke up laughing.

In my dream, I bought something at the store. The price was $1.17. The text of the amount was shown to me in bold font.

I thought to myself “okay, I probably need to remember this number.”

Then, right before I woke up from my dream, the scene changed to that of like a movie. You have watched the movie Star Wars, right? It was like the opening crawl of Star wars. The number 117 was scrawled to me to the front.

I love my family spirits. I love their sense of humor. They made me laugh so much at the beginning of the day.

I was curious about the message of the number “117”. When I googled “the meaning of the number 117”, I saw many people mentioned the message is “You are on the right path.”

I think what they mean by saying “the right path” is my attendance of Writer’s Work Shop in November. I am excited about it. I hope I will meet the right person whom I am supposed to reconnect in this lifetime. I am thinking about meeting my soul sister.

***

During my meditation, the message to my soul sister popped up. I want to share this here with you.

Dear my soul sister.

Where are you?

I have been looking for you for years.

I am little shy.

I am naïve that I cannot ask a whole bunch of people if anybody knows any information to find you.

I always look for the wrong direction to find you.

So, my dear sister, please find me.

Please find me and come to me, and talk to me.

Once you come to talk to me, once I look into your eyes, I will know you are the right one.

By then, I keep having a positive thought on us.

Once we find each other, we can help each other to take much more steps forward together.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today was my 4th acupuncture treatment.

As for the diagnosis of my tongue and pulse, my acupuncturist said my kidney got much stronger than before. Liver also showed some progress. Spleen showed a slight improvement. It was great to hear that my body has been improved for these two months.

Our topic was changed about my blood pressure. My blood pressure tends to be high. Whenever I went to the clinic, it was around 140/90. The doctor asked me if I wanted her to prescribe the medicine for blood pressure. My response was of course “No”.

According to my acupuncturist, there are some people who easily get nervous about checking their blood pressure. That causes them to have high blood pressure at clinics or hospitals. When they are calm at home, their blood pressure is not high at all, within the normal range.

When she checked my blood pressure, it was high. It was 156/98 before the treatment. The value was extremely high for me. Right after the treatment, in my most relaxed status, my acupuncturist checked my blood pressure again. It was lowered than before, but still high. It was 140/90.

After I came back home, I went for a walk for 20 minutes. Then, I checked my blood pressure with my home machine. It was pretty normal value; 125/83.

I guess I am one of the types. I don’t think I need the medicine for high blood pressure.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪