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Page of Swords & The High Priestess, vol.12
I watched from a distance as my husband, Masato Shiraishi, walked into "BOOK-OFF." He did not wander around the store. He immediately spotted a Japanese translation of James F. Twyman's thin book, "Thomas Messages-The Psychic Children Speaks to the World-". As if the book had a magnet in it that attracted him, he walked straight down the aisle without hesitation, stopped in front of the book, and picked it up. After witnessing this sequence of his actions, I walked up to him. As I approached, he said, "It's Japanese". Of course, we were in Honolulu, and all the books in the store were in English. But it was a book published by a Japanese publisher called "Natural Spirit," which publishes only spiritual books. The old book was priced at one dollar.
Who in the world is going to buy this book? If it's such a thin book, and written in Japanese, it's going to remain unnoticed and neglected forever, right? Or maybe discarded at the appropriate time?
Maybe my husband would buy it.
I said so and handed him a one-dollar bill.
We bought the book and headed to "ONO HAWAIIAN FOODS". In a general sense, it is probably not a good idea to make a cancer patient walk so much, but he looked a little better, so I didn't stop him as he kept walking and we walked side by side. After all that walking, he seemed quite hungry, and at "ONO HAWAIIAN FOODS" he ordered steamed pork as planned, and ate it all with "poi" on it, without leaving any leftovers. I was happy to see him show such a small but positive attitude. I was surprised to find myself unexpectedly like his wife, who was happy or sad at his words or actions.
Well, we are back at the "Sheraton Moana Surfrider" where we stayed. It was 2007 when this hotel changed its name to "Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa", so on our "Bridal Night" it was still called "Sheraton Moana Surfrider". We stayed in the same suite. I had no idea that I was going to marry him at such short notice when I tried to book our suite stay, so I considered staying in a different suite than his. Needless to say, it is not easy for a woman to stay in the same room with a man. However, I didn't want him to commit suicide, so we decided to stay in the same suite. We spent the "Bridal Night" in the same suite, each in a different bed. When we entered the suite, he said the following:
I don't know you well yet. You barely know me either. Besides, I am, after all, an invalid. So, tonight, I will not make love to you. I will not sneak into your bed in the middle of the night and touch you, so please rest assured.
OK, I understand….
In other words, we spent the night like Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, the famous couple from Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night"!
As for why he said this, there was an entirely different reason than the one he was explaining at the time, such as terminal cancer. That is what I would later learn. I will tell you about it another time….
When I came out of the shower, Masato was sitting on his bed reading the Japanese translation of "Thomas Message-The Psychic Children Speaks to the World-". I opened my laptop and began replying to the messages that had arrived. When I finished, I began researching Japanese medical care. I wanted to find the best medical facility to cure Masato's esophageal cancer. While I was working on the computer, he finished reading it, as it is a very thin book. Then he remained silent and seemed to be thinking about something.
I wanted to know what he was thinking, but I hesitated to ask him questions. So instead, I asked him if he wanted something cold to drink. He was a little tearful. Instead of asking for a drink, he suddenly and excitedly started talking.
I had used the method that Hiroshi Ohuchi, the translator of this book, and his family had used! I have done the "Pretend Forgiveness" thing. I pretended to forgive my father, and though it may not have been a "Miracle," I experienced a real loss of my own feelings of resentment. Maybe I tried to "Pretend to be Love" as Thomas explains in the book. I'd like to hear from Hiroshi Ohuchi.
He went on to briefly explain to me the contents of "Thomas Message-The Psychic Children Speaks to the World-".
The book is a dialogue between James F. Twyman and Thomas, a boy with psychic abilities. Thomas' message is: "You are Love. You are Love, so let's live as Love." James F. Twyman, however, asks the question, "What if it is difficult to live as Love?"
Thomas replies, "Pretend to be it. Pretend to be Love."
What does that mean?
To help readers understand more clearly this part of the conversation between James F. Twyman and Thomas, the most important message of the book, Hiroshi Ohuchi, who translated the book into Japanese, shares his own experience with us, the readers, in the "Translator's Postscript". Masato was particularly impressed with the "Translator's postscript".
A fourth child, a daughter named Rei, was born to Hiroshi Ohuchi and Janet Nordyke Ohuchi. She suffered from "Lethal Dwarfism," an incurable disease of unknown cause. Unable to breathe on her own, she lay in a bed in the intensive care unit with an oxygen tube inserted into her lungs, and her mother was not allowed to breastfeed, so a nurse nursed Rei. To begin with, the diagnosis was that she would die at any moment. Hiroshi and Janet spent their days in excruciating grief. But they made a decision.
Let's act as we learned from "A Course In Miracles", shall we?
In "A COURSE IN MIRACLES TEXT Chapter21 II. 2. 3-5," it says the following:
3I am responsible for what I see.
4I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
5And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.
Hiroshi and Janet were inspired by this passage and decided to make the choice to "See Love".
If we are responsible for what we see, let us see Love.
What does that mean?
In other words, they began to try to "pretend" that this situation, which never looks the best, is perfect and the best it can be.
Then, many miracles happened to the Ohuchi family.
In the first place, Rei was not supposed to be born. There was even a hospital that implicitly recommended abortion. However, the hospital that accepted them changed the rule that only the mother was allowed in the ICU, and allowed the father and Rei's siblings to see her for 15 minutes every day. The nurses, who worked in eight-hour shifts for 24 hours, kept a circular diary. And there it was written, "Rei's oxygen needs decrease when Mom and Dad come," much to the delight of Rei's parents. A friend of a friend of theirs had rented an apartment across the street from the hospital that cost a million yen. It was totally unbelievable that these people, whom they had never met, were willing to rent the apartment to them free of charge for two months during the summer. From there, they could see the ICU where Rei was staying. In this way, the baby who was told that she might die tomorrow lived for 270 days and left.
The translator's postscript describes in great detail the day before Rei's death, when Hiroshi Ohuchi sat by Rei alone.
For some reason, I felt at peace that day and was able to quietly be with Rei.
The translator's postscript describes so. He looked at Rei. Suddenly, Rei smiled, which was unlikely, since Rei had a tube in her mouth. But Rei smiled. Maybe it just looked that way to him. But this, rather, is what it means to choose Love, to see Love.
It was a very magical moment. At that moment, I felt that Love flowed between us like an electric current.
The translator's postscript includes the above information, followed by the poem "Smiling Rei" created by Hiroshi Ohuchi.
― Smiling Rei ―
When I arrived at the ICU that morning, you were slumbering.
The nurse told me she was a little tired and resting today.
As usual, I sat by the bed where you were lying and started talking to your sleeping face.
Suddenly, your eyes opened, and you smiled.
You smiled at me.
You smiled again at me, as I was stunned with joy.
With the tube, your lifeline, depriving you of the freedom of your mouth, you smiled at me.
How deeply you touched our lives, having chosen a body that never moved, never spoke, never grew, in which it was a miracle to even live a week.
When I looked into your eyes, when your eyes looked into me, my time stopped.
I sensed the emptiness of thinking about the past and fretting about the future in the dearness of the moment with you.
What words of deep joy you leave behind without uttering a word.
Let it be.
You taught us that everything, everything alive, everything is beautiful and full of love by not moving, not speaking, but just looking at us with your big eyes.
Thank you, Rei.
You are going back to the world surrounded by light.
But at the same time, you remain with us.
For the love you evoked is in our hearts.
Why don't you ask Mr. Ohuchi if what you did constitutes "Pretend to be Love"?
I advised him as above, however, he replied, "That time is not left for me, a terminal cancer patient."
Don't you have a Google account, a G-mail address? I asked. I asked him the above and advised him to try emailing Hiroshi Ohuchi.
You could write him a note saying what you think of the book, thank you for translating a good book, or something like that, and then send it to him.
He flipped through the book, saying things like, "How am I going to send him an e-mail when I don't know Hiroshi Ohuchi's e-mail address?" He found a piece of paper folded in half on the last page. It was a flyer for a "Peace of Mind Workshop" that Hiroshi Ohuchi and his wife, Janet, had organized. The workshop itself had already ended, but it contained Hiroshi Ohuchi's e-mail address. In fact, the e-mail address itself is listed in the translator's information in the book on his website, "The World of Hiroshi Ohuchi," and we can send an e-mail to him by visiting there. But right after our conversation, the flyer for the "Peace of Mind Workshop" really came in handy. So, we absolutely needed this flyer.
He used my laptop to type the email. He wrote his impressions of the Japanese translation of "Thomas Message-The Psychic Children Speaks to the World-," especially the "Translator's Postscript". He concluded his email with the following sentence:
Someday I would like to meet you and talk with you.
After he finished writing this, he handed me a flyer with information about the "Peace of Mind Workshop". He then took a drink of water. I looked at the flyer. Then a reply from Hiroshi Ohuchi arrived unbelievably quickly. It read as follows:
Mr. Shiraishi, what is written in "A Course In Miracles" is that if you want to meet me and believe it sincerely, you definitely meet me.
The moment I read that reply, I started preparing to leave Hawaii tomorrow.
Let's go to Lake Yamanakako to see Hiroshi Ohuchi and Janet! Oh my gosh, we have their home address on the flyer! They live by Lake Yamanakako. We take the Shinkansen/bullet train from Tokyo and get off at "Shin-Fuji" station. Then let's skip the cab! That's fantastic! No more swimming with dolphins. Let's go to Japan now! We should leave for Japan tomorrow on the earliest possible flight! I am excited! Wow!
Huh? What? Tomorrow? What about plane tickets?
Oh, yes. But, you know me? I am the woman called "Tsuji-Giri OYUKI", Yukiko, the successful one! LOL. LOL. LOL. There is no way I would use "economy class"! There is always room in first class! No, no, that's not what I mean! There is always room on a plane to Japan! There is if we trust it! Isn't that what it says in "A Course In Miracles"?
We, of course, left Hawaii the next day for Lake Yamanakako, Japan.
©Mitsuhiro Toda@Screenwriter Group Aquariusera
