True Activism – Mika’s Story (December 17, 2007)
I still remember when I made a firm decision to serve for social justice. I was 19 years old. It was when I broke up with my first boyfriend. He was also 19 years old and wanted to explore his life freely to see the rest of the world. He decided to study abroad. Knowing that it was a legitimate reason, I suffered from a tremendous broken heart and nothing helped ease my feeling of hurt. I was crying days and nights for weeks…
Soon later, one day my eyes were caught by a front page picture of the newspapers. It was a large picture of refugee children who lost their parents and home altogether due to the internal armed conflict. I still cannot forget the eyes of the children crying and asking for help… By looking at the picture, I realized that I didn’t know anything about sufferings. I was ashamed that I was worrying about such a small personal pain, compared to a large scale of sufferings around the world.
Since then, I started voraciously reading about current affairs and I made a firm decision that one day I would serve for social justice. At that stage, I had no idea how it would make it happen because I was a freshman at a pharmaceutical university. I passionately spoke to many classmates about the current affairs and shared my dream about working for the United Nations to be involved in humanitarian operations. They ridiculously looked at me and laughed, saying “What are you thinking? Are you crazy? We are studying pharmacology, not international politics”.
Since the episode, I decided to keep my passion for social justice inside and not to tell anyone. I also decided to complete my education/training as a pharmacist. After graduation, I got a full time job at a pharmaceutical company and worked for a couple of years to financially prepare for the future education. During this period, I never doubted that one day I would get on the path for social justice. I just waited for the right moment.
Soon later, I was accepted to a law school and I officially started studying international law and affairs. Since then, things were quite smooth as I was so dedicated to studying and gaining knowledge to prepare for my new career in humanitarian affairs. I graduated from the law school with honors and received scholarships to study in the United Kingdom. I obtained two Masters in Laws and got into a Ph.D. program. By then, I was offered a job at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations and it was the time when I came to New York. I enjoyed diplomatic service as an official of the Japanese Government, particularly in serving for a drafting committee for a human rights treaty.
Everything was so smooth. After the diplomatic service, I was recruited by the United Nations in New York. I was a special fund manager to provide funding for small projects to improve lives of women and children in developing countries sustainably. It was supposed to be a kind of job that I dreamed about for years. But the reality was so different from what I expected. I was very disappointed and depressed. I was surrounded by tremendous resources and potentials for social justice, but something was wrong. It was not working. I believed for years that changing international orders/institutions would be the fastest way of achieving social justice, but it was not true. I learned that a change must be planted more at a personal level rather than a mass level. I was devastated. I wished that I could ignore the spiritual message, but I couldn’t. The United Nations was not the place where I would be able to fulfill my duties…
I suffered years before I finally made a decision to leave the United Nations. I took the hardest road to start my own path as I was guided. I spent more years to build the foundation for my current practice as a healer by putting all my knowledge, experience and additional training…
Throughout my career at the United Nations and afterwards, I met so many activists who were passionate about social justice, whether human rights, humanitarian operations, women and children’s issues, health or environment. I met so many activists who were passionately dedicated their life to concerned issues, but they didn’t know how to take care of themselves in personal aspects.
I learned through my own experience that true activism is internal strength: speaking up is important, but not just blaming others; empowerment of the Self and being grounded.
It is the Spiritual Truth that the most effective social change starts at a human level. It is most effective through a personal encounter. Even global activism can be effective if each one of the members in movement is conscious and responsible for one’s well-being, not just for the concerned issues.
With a lot of passion and empathy (although it is a good thing), we tend to curve to extremism. This will only harm others as well as the Self and it will not last long. You may give up on the issue easily or move to another interest after a while. The true activism is the path of “moderation”. It is grounded and Self-empowering, so that people will listen to you and moved by you. In true activism, you need to showcase how you have overcome your weakness and share with others. It is your true story that empowers others, not a citation from a book. Your story will transform the lives of others eternally. Then, you will be an agent of change.
True activism through healing is my life-long service to the Humanity. Healing is Self-empowerment and the foundation for social change and justices…
This is the last spiritual message in 2007 and more to come in 2008!
Happy holidays!
Mika
