Connected with my children in a grand current of nature9From the beginning, humans have lived in tandem with nature. We still live according to natural rhythms, both internal and external. Sitting with these reflections in the forest is a key part of realizing that one is enough just as one is. In those moments, the forest acts a safe, nurturing place for our rawest selves—even for just a short time, it becomes the womb of the earth, nourishing and protecting us.another small casket like that ever again. Those kind of experiences drive my desire—even to this day—to provide health and wellbeing to the best of my ability to those around me.Sickness and death were an everyday part of my international development work. In those days, economic prosperity in the places I lived here and there around Africa was especially scarce. But the people—the people there lived with a vitality that knew no bounds. The women, especially, lived with a sense of both humor and community that touched me deeply. Whenever I returned to Japan, the sheer level of exhaustion that seemed to permeate society was always shocking. Japan could learn a thing or two from those communities in Kenya and Zambia, I thought. Not least of all was how to live closer to nature.My work in Africa was about connecting people through public health. Now, my work in Yakushima is about connecting people with nature.I delivered both of my children totally naturally, on the tatami of a doula’s clinic. My pregnancies were a defining part of my personal feeling of connection with nature. With my children growing in my womb, I felt the grand life-power of nature stirring within me. I could feel that power linking together me, my children, and everything upon this Earth. My journey through this world as a woman is part of that power. Beginning with my first menstruation, to falling in love and getting married, to menopause and eventually the nursing care that I will presumably receive—it’s a journey defined by transformation. And each stage is a chance to not only redefine one’s life, but also to rediscover one’s latent connection to nature. In that sense, I feel so honored to have been born into this world as a woman.I feel that in life, nothing is for naught. Nothing is superfluous. Every single thing you meet, and see, and experience shapes you as a person. Everyone already carries with them little bits of treasure… and you might not even recognize those things as treasure. For me—my childhood memories, my work in international development, the birth of my children—even miniscule details from these life stages have stayed with me. When I consider them all contained within the singular entity of myself, I feel as if I’m looking into a radiant and mesmerizing kaleidoscope of color.When I lie down in the forest and look up at the trees, with the light shining through their leaves and playing upon their branches, I feel the same. This sylvan kaleidoscope of beauty borne from the natural cosmos also exists—even if hidden—within each of us. By assisting in people’s reconnection to nature, I want to help everyone rediscover that latent radiance. That’s where KaleidoForest’s name comes from: a kaleidoscopic forest.In our daily lives, it’s easy to feel the need for more. More of this, more of that, the need to be more. I want to help people realize that everything they need is actually already contained within themselves. Especially women: the life-giving power of our bodies is such a special, sacred thing.
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