Captured Student of Week Ten: Seshen

Welcome Seshen!

Seshen was born and raised in Japan and is here visiting Wendy to learn about the edible schoolyard and the farm. She is also here to share in her knowledge of the healing arts. At the age of 9 she and her family spent a year in Europe while her father was on a teaching sabbatical. It was during this year in Europe that she had an awakening of spirit and felt most like herself. Compared to life in Japan, with its rigidity and desire for all citizens to socially conform, she was free to discover her true nature. During her years in University, she took part in an exchange study program in Berlin, Germany. For the duration of that year abroad she majored in art and lived with many other students in an apartment. She came back to Japan fluent in German and began her career as a German – Japanese Interpreter.

While working on her career in Japan she fell very ill, this however turned out to be a blessing as many unfortunate events often do and opened a pathway for the exploration of healing arts and helping people to choose a sustainable conscious diet. Her first study was in Aromatherapy, then onto Esalen massage, cranial sacral work, and then she met a teacher who taught her body and energy work. All of her many teachers have had a profound impact on her education in the healing arts, she carries the breadth of knowledge learned from these many masters with her in all she does. Around this same time she began teaching Soul Motion, which is a modality of conscious movement or dancing. For more information check out www.soulmotion.com or look up the local dance instructor, Zuza Renglar, who teaches in Berkeley and Sebastopol.

Seshen has loved cooking since she was a small child. The more aware she became of the energy of the body the more she realized the powerful connection between food energy and body energy. She is an excellent and skilled Macrobiotic cook. I know because she shared with me a delicious macrobiotic banana nut muffin. (*One of her special recipes is coming soon, so check back for it!) Her message to those of us who shy away form Macrobiotics, thinking it bland and nasty, is that cooking macrobiotically is tasty, healthy, and sustainable. She cooks and bakes without the use of eggs, dairy, wheat, or sugar. While this is a remarkable practice, she really wants us all to know the joy of eating this way. Yes, it is tasty!

Prior to coming to the mainland, she was visiting a fellow county woman on the big island of Hawaii. Mayumi Oda, friend to both Wendy and Seshen, is an amazing Goddess artist, activist and teacher. She is teaching young adults from Japan and all over the world sustainable living practices and the power of the goddess in all of us. Her island education and art center is Ginger Hill Farm; it is a powerful place of transformation. Check it out at www.gingerhillfarm.com . Mayuma has established a new project in the Nara prefecture in Japan, “This special village is in Morokino, the mythological birthplace of Shinto and Buddhism, only one hour from the well-known cities of Osaka and Nara.” The project is a living model of a ‘Hannou’ lifestyle for all of Japan to see. A ‘Hannou” lifestyle means half of life spent cultivating the earth in agriculture and the other half spent in a creative pursuit. Community members of the village will cultivate the earth and share their life’s gift all while living sustainably. Please read Mayumi’s letter, posted here on the blog, to learn more of her recent trip to japan and how you can help!

Seshen is a bright well-spoken woman whose vision of her life includes time spent split between Japan and California, as a sort of ambassador between Japan and the United States. She deeply feels that the people of Japan really need “to learn other values and mentalities, to experience land and community, to broaden their horizons and experiences”. Seshen sees herself, as an instrument to help more Japanese people have these kinds of experiences that she believes will make a better Japan, and a richer humanity. Check out her website at www.calmtide.com .

Seshen is a woman on the move gathering life experiences and wisdom along the way. Next week she’s heading to San Luis Obispo to stay at Nada ranch and work with artist Franklin on his vision of communal ranch living. Then in June she is back to Japan to celebrate Mayumi’s 70^th birthday at the “hannou’ style village. Fare thee well, Seshen.