Collage + Intuition take you where you need to go

Oct 15

This collage, made in 2003, expressed my longing to connect with my Japanese heritage. To go back in time and place to where my people began and when we would have been so intimately connected with Nature. We may all have that longing with our own roots. Cultural loss and severance from Nature through migration and assimilation has a real impact on sense of belonging and grounding for many Americans.

I have made several pathways back to Japan over the years: studying the language and culture in college; writing about Japanese American mother daughter artists in my novel; keeping the family genealogy; making art; immersing myself in Japanese and Japanese American art, books, movies, food, music; picking up Japanese language practice after decades; and planning a trip to Kyoto and environs for next year .

But one of the most vital pursuits has been Ancestral Healing, which I’ve done with the expert guidance of Kimiko Kawabori of Origins Within. She’s helped me to meet well Ancestors and to assist the not quite ancestralized find what they need to be able to be fully available in a mutually supportive relationship with me.

These Ancestors are real presences who remind me what I’m made of, what core values I carry in my own way that express the purpose of that line. One line holds Joy through Adversity as a gift. A very important way of being to thrive in these tumultuous times.

All the lines have shown me strong couples who work together and independently to serve the community. I’m inspired for the time when my husband and I begin to really take on elder responsibilities.

Some of my Ancestors have chosen to become boddhisattvas, to keep reincarnating until all are liberated. I take solace from the goodhearted nature that I can learn from and hope to carry more fully.

Consider the richness of the human experience your Ancestors have to share with you!

Join Kimiko and me in Creating with the Ancestors !