Hmmm, can you hear their voices in the wind?
I am not particularly fond of the telephone whether it is a land line or a cell phone. The ringing of the phone, or the tone of a cell phone, always strikes me as intrusive and disturbs my peace. It is annoyingly insistent: Answer me! Answer me! Answer me! If I choose not to answer, I have to check for a message later which puts an obligation on me to call back.
But I have learned about a new type of phone that is much more to my liking: The Wind Phone. An unconnected, rotary dial phone installed outdoors in a quiet setting – a park or conservation area or memorial garden – that lets people symbolically speak to deceased loved ones.
The concept was created by a Japanese man by the name of Itaru Sasaki in 2010. He built a disconnected phone booth in his garden to help him cope with the death of his cousin. It has since become a widespread global movement for dealing with grief. Wind Phones have been installed worldwide with approximately 130 in Canada.
There is one installed in Beckett Forest at Dundas Valley Conservation Area which is one of my regular haunts for nature rambles. It is nestled in the trees and easy to miss if you are not paying attention.
Beneath the phone there are lines of verse that begin with:
This phone will never ring. It is connected by love to nowhere and everywhere.
It is for those who have an empty place in their hearts left by a loved one.
Say hello, say goodbye. Talk of the past, the present, the future.
The lines that follow encourage anyone who encounters the device to use it as a means to achieve solace and comfort.
The wind has long had symbolic meaning. It can symbolize change and transformation because the wind alters its course without warning. It represents the unstoppable nature of life transitions which of course includes death.
In ancient languages, the word for wind is the same as the word for spirit. Hence, the wind can symbolize the spirit and the soul which live on after death.
The final line in the verse below the Wind Phone is: This phone is not connected or monitored. I imagine that line is partly there for literal, unobservant people who might see it and think: Oh, wow! An old style pay phone. My cell phone battery is dead, so this is just what I need!
But the line is also a challenge to believe the very opposite. To be drawn into the invitation and believe that the Wind Phone offers a means of connection that nothing can else can provide or approximate.
Cast your message on the wind and let it be carried through the corridors of memory and remembrance. Crossing the boundary line between life and death connecting you to the loved one who went on ahead to a place we will all inhabit in the fullness of time.
~ Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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Tags: Dundas Valley Conservation Area · grief · Itaru Sasaki · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · solace · Wind PhoneNo Comments