Chapter 1
The winter of 2007 had been shattering. A cluster of bad decisions birthed from an insidious love affair had left me: Homeless, Jobless, Car-less – Impoverished, along with a dash of terror from a crazed stalker for good measure.
Fortune had smiled on me.
I had to turn my life around. I was willing to take any legal money-making opportunity that made sense. When going through a crisis, one rarely considers there might be some greater good to be experienced. I found myself suffering from insecurity and anxiety at every turn.
Once, headed to a job assignment in California, I was sitting unusually calmly on an airplane, reading “Feelings Buried Alive Never Die” by Karol Truman. In the back of my head, I heard the announcement, “Aft doors locked and secure”. Hurled into a full-blown panic attack, I leaped out of my seat and dashed to the back of the plane. My heart was racing. I couldn’t breathe. It was all I could do to resist clutching the poor flight attendant as I begged for oxygen. I thought I was going to die.
And that’s how many days and weeks passed, when I received an email from Phil, a man I had never met, who said I had been referred to him by a colleague. He asked if I might be interested in teaching in Japan.
That email changed my life.
Chapter 1
Rising Sun beckons
My winter soul awakens
Yearning to emerge
