JOY'S ROOM
ink and gouache on
cold pressed acrylic paper, 185/lbs.
2011
I received this note from Jim about a lovely woman named Joy.
She had cancer and appeared one day at the door of Jim and Shanti's vegetarian restaurant Bliss in Baguio. After fast becoming a convert to the delights of the couple's cooking and ebullience, she found herself going there every night.
During her last night in Baguio, she wore a chiongsam, wore a wide smile, and laughed with the couple and taught everyone in the restaurant to dance tango. When the night wore on and she bid goodbye to everyone, not a single eye was left dry.
The next day, when Jim arrived at the restaurant to open up, written on the window with a bright red lipstick was a note from Joy saying a big thank you to the couple.
Joy died several days later in a hospice in Switzerland.
Written below, unedited, is the email Joy sent to Jim sharing to him (and I think to those who read it) her love, gratitude for a life well lived and how she will be birthing in to a new adventure, a new life.
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Beloved Friends,
It was such a bliss to meet you some time and somewhere on this planet. We have had a particularly deep connexion with the heart, because we are spirit sisters and brothers.
After 6 years of fully fulfilled life, now it is time for me to leave my body and become ? who knows ? an angel? a butterfly ? an other human being? a cherry tree ?
I am now in one of the most beautiful place in the world : in a big old house with a magnificent garden, dedicated for people on the way to leave their body. I have the best room, under the roof, with the view on the Lake Leman, where the embouchure of the Rhone is.
My room is the most beautiful of the house, and is more a meditation room, with Buddhas, crystals, flowers, incense, sarongs. 60 angels volunteers are looking after us, voluntarily. But I also have my private healers, nurses, friends?.. giving care and massages. It is a place with so much love, you cannot imagine it does exist.
Since two weeks, I begin to leave my chrysalis, slowly, slowly. The body begins to loose earth, water, and sometimes I feel like fire. It is a real delivery! I am in a big labour, giving birth to another entity, lying in my bed with nurses busy around me.
For the body, it is sometimes difficult, I have sometimes pain, but I try to transform this pain into a gift dedicated to all human beings. But for my mind it is ecstasy: I feel so strong, so high, everything is full of beauty and light. Each minute is a gift. And all my friends are coming, to speak about all that we have shared in the past. And also forgiveness is here. And then we say how much we love each other, then we say bye bye.
How deep for the heart?
I have received also so many gifts : a friend medium makes my karma cleaning with huge gongs. A Tibetan Rimpoche is also with me during this passage. I am so thankful for all those privileges, to be so alive with my mind.
What a privilege to have so many brothers and sisters. As you in the world
If you want to write me, I will love it, but perhaps I will not answer, because I would like to have time for meditation and silence. So please write me once or twice, not more.
Somebody will let you know when I leave my body.
I LOVE YOU ALL
