Newsletter No.44

Hello, everyone. I hope you all have been well. How is your December unfolding now? I can recognise that my body is tired. Although I had expected my December to be quiet, it turned out to be a super busy month partially due to possible changes coming into the industry of creative arts therapies in the NDIS context. This has been impacting me and my colleagues near and far at all different levels. I acknowledge the stress level we are currently experiencing is not just simply good; it is perhaps time for us to rest and recuperate from all that happened in 2024.

As I grew up in the northern hemisphere, I love a winter Christmas and I am slowly ‘accepting’ a hot Christmas with prawns and cherries. I like how the excitement for Christmas is being built up towards the 25th, but somehow on Christmas Day, I feel a sense of loss. Christmas is important for me religiously and it is family time for me. After Christmas, in my culture, on the last day of the year, we clean the whole house, particularly corners and places where we normally don’t clean! It is simply to welcome a new year. Traditionally, Japanese people eat an ‘osechi’ for three days. This is a type of food that you can easily preserve for three days or more; the idea is that you do not cook, and sit back and do nothing.

I also know that I am privileged to say that I can look forward to the holidays whereas many people in the other parts of the world are suffering from the ongoing wars, conflicts, hunger, violence and poverty. My heart hurts when I think of this. Terumi Tanaka, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Nihon Hidankyo, an anti-nuclear organisation, urged young people to take up the fight for a nuclear-free world. He said, “There still remain 12,000 nuclear warheads on Earth today, 4,000 of which are operationally deployed, ready for immediate launch.”

Thinking for a long time about what I could do for world peace, I decided to bring the Hiroshima and Nagasaki history to a school setting in 2025. A few months ago, I contacted the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and they kindly provided me with some educational materials free. My children’s school welcomed my idea, and I am motivated to do something for children with a sense of urgency. This is going to be my personal 2025 project! I think it is exciting to do something else other than clinically working too!

I hope you all have a restful holiday ahead. We all are well deserved for doing nothing! I thank you all for keeping in touch with me this year through newsletters, emails, conversations, and in-person meetings. I hope 2025 will bring us hope and peace.

Kind regards,

Mioi Forster-Nakayama