Haiku My Heart: Prayers and True Heart Offerings for Japan
For just above in the shadow
you’ll find it hidden, a curved arm
of rock holding the water close to the mountain,
a just-lit surface smoothing a scattering of coins,
and in the niche above, notes to the dead
and supplications for those who still live.
Now you are alone with the transfiguration
and ask no healing for your own
but look down as if looking through time,
as if through a rent veil from the other
side of the question you’ve refused to ask,
and remember how as a child
your arms could rise and your palms
turn out to bless the world.
~ David Whyte ~
Excerpt from TOBAR PHADRAIC
We , The Aquatic Angels Team, Are Here This Day To Ask you to Join Us in Offering the People of Japan Shelter,Comfort, Warmth and a Chance at Human Dignity in the Face of True Disaster . If You would like to Help our team, Aquatic Angels,~ Simply Sponsor us, by clicking on any one of the 4 colored links in the poem by David Whyte above. Doing this will take you to a page for ShelterBoxusa.org where you may donate whatever you can afford to help us in our goal to purchase one Shelterbox for $1,000 dollars (the cost of one box). One ShelterBox can provide Shelter, comfort, warmth, survival and dignity for an extended family of 10 people! We want to offer hope to children and families who currently do not see a brighter tomorrow! Thank you for your kindness and compassion.
Below is a short film on ShelterBox to help you understand the value of this organization:
For more wonderful Haikus please visit Recuerda mi Corazon. We are a community that Acts locally but thinks Globally in unity with one another. Please join us!
oh my friend you have spoken straight to my heart. thank you noelle. what a precious photograph, what perfect words. i hope many will join us in our goal of sending a shelter box to japan.
ReplyDeleteimagine knowing that together we have sent a tangible offering of love and compassion.
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteA friend just sent me a number of letters from people Professors from her Graduate school who are actually living in the affected areas of Japan. I am copying one of the emails for you word for word here. Since no one is coming to my blog today, I may put it on yours as well. Here it is my dear. The email from Japan:
Yes, David.
Today's update gets more interesting. Misawa Air Base has become the hub for international relief efforts. Quite interesting to talk with my "homeboys" from the LA Fire Department on the base. One of my students is a dentist for the Japanese Self Defense Force who is being mobilized to help match dental records with bodies. Another is a JSDF officer responsible for coordinating military response in Sendai. Most of my other students are US military and contractors who are heavily engaged in providing rescue and relief services.
The Japanese system has quickly become overwhelmed, so the military help is becoming vital to the rescue and relief activities. Japanese supply lines are severed, so they are running low on food, water, and fuel. Misawa ran out of gasoline yesterday. The grocery stores are almost empty and still rationing access. Heating fuel is running low as winter-like storms lay a white sheet over the region.
The Misawa Air Base is already housing relief crews and survivors, but is also preparing to move the entire population inside the base if the fuel runs out. The air base still has no electricity, but it has sufficient fuel and food for the time being. The tidal waves were as big here as everywhere else but most people live far enough off the coast that we did not have the loss of life that is seen south of us. Penny and I spent yesterday helping some neighbors clear the debris that was once their home and barn; they seemed quite stoic, almost cheerful. Might go back to that first noble truth. Whatever it is, American citizens can learn a lot from the Japanese citizens about how to deal with tragedy. Completely missing: whining, hording, looting, expectations that someone else should take care of them.
One of the important consequences of this unfolding event that the media has completely missed is that the tidal waves have erased thousands of years of cultural and religious heritage. We are very familiar with some of the deluged areas, which rank among the most beautiful and sacred places in Japan. Of course, as people struggle for survival, it is understandable that they may not notice the loss of the spiritual and cultural. Regardless, if the Japanese tend to be adept at using tragedy as a refining fire to strengthen their society. When all is cleared they will be stronger as a people and a nation. Meanwhile, I am glad for the opportunity to provide whatever help I can.
Hope all is well for you.
Regards,
Brent
Where have I been, Noelle? Thank you, thank you for this post. I'm donating today.
ReplyDeleteP.s. Noelle, I had never heard of Shelterbox. Considering the many disasters in recent years, I ask myself, "Was I living under a rock?" So yes, very grateful to have seen this post and video. Thank you, again.
ReplyDeleteThank you Annie and Bless You a thousand times!!
ReplyDeleteMuch Love,
Noelle
Absolutely dear. My work gave $50,000 to it. It started in the UK Cornwall and has not been in the States that long. That is probably why you had not heard of it but they do good work. I looked at their financials and literally almost all of their monies go directly to helping the people in need. It is astounding how little they pay themselves . The packing of the boxes and deployment is mostly a volunteer effort. Their paid staff appears to be quite minimal.
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Noelle
so simple a gesture of human kindness... thank you for a glorious post... informative, enriching and engaging.... just read your second post regarding the emails from the disaster site.... never heard of shelterbox.... thank you...
ReplyDeleteYes, Ms Pie. It is a wonderful organization. It has been around for ten years. It started in the UK. I think that is why no one has heard of it but it is now based in the U.S. They were in Haiti in the recent disaster. They have been everywhere really. So glad you liked the post!
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Noelle
Excellent image, and you're always so literary and poetic. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAll the best, Boonie
Dearest Noelle,
ReplyDeleteI'm so privileged to have come to know you and the beauty you spread for us here, bless you,
Love Sue x
PS I read the email, so very heart wrenching!
Thank you, Sue for your love and support. You are a blessing in my life. Because of you, I think of England as just-across-the-pond.
ReplyDeleteMuch Love,
Noelle
Dear Noelle, What truly wonderful things you have brought us! This little girl, doing what she understands. And the quotation by David Whyte describing the blessing of a child. And the organization for us to contribute to Shelter Box. Monday I will sit down with my checkbook (or PayPal or credit card), follow your prompts on how to donate, and give as much as I can. The boxes are unbelievable. As I understand it, these items fit the needs of what so many are crying out for (especially in the north). You are truly an angel with fins AND wings, Noelle, and I humbly thank you. Love
ReplyDeleteDear Margaret,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I started a team on the Shelterbox page and rebecca has joined and meri as well. Anything you can donate is graciously welcome and deeply appreciated.Yes, Japan is now asking for boxes from ShelterBox. We are on our way to sending a box to Japan and we would also love for you to join the team if you would like.
Love,
Noelle
Thank you, Noelle, for opening my eyes to Shelter Box. I guess I also was living under a rock and not heard of this wonderful organization.
ReplyDeleteAdriana Esqueda
Well, Bless you Adriana. It's headquarters are in the UK and its affiliates are in 18 countries including the U.S. It has only been around since 2000 and really took off in the first disaster in 2002. Other NGO's have been around much longer. but it has been central to every big disaster ever since. It just does not get as much play as the larger organizations. It is good, solid and stable and all of its donation monies go to the boxes and deployment of them. Now my dear you can spread the word! Thank you for dropping in. So good of you :-)
ReplyDelete