The Birth of 'The Promise with the Forest'
Actually, 'The Promise with the Forest' was
not the book I originally intended to write.
In truth,
I had been planning to write 'Inner Pilgrimage: A Record of Living the Promise with the Forest'.
I currently live with an old house and garden that have stood for over a hundred years.
Until the promised day ten years from now when I return to the forest,
I wanted to write down the days of living as a pure soul.
That was the thought with which I began writing.
About half a year into writing,
I wondered why I had chosen this life.
Unless I wrote about that starting point,
I could not begin 'Inner Pilgrimage'.
Thinking that, what was born
was 'The Promise with the Forest'.
On a small island in Hawaii,
I spent five days relying only on the voices of my body and soul.
At the end of the journey, in a sacred circle deep in the forest,
Fifteen years later, I would return to this forest as a pure soul.
I made that promise to a single tree.
Five years have passed since then.
As a result of wandering in search of a place where I could breathe,
I arrived at the decision to make the place where I am now a place where I can breathe.
Deciding that was how I began my current life.
However, when I finished writing this story,
an even newer question arose.
'In the first place, why did I
come to live by following the voices of my body and soul?'
Guided by that question, I began writing
my autobiography, 'Pilgrimage of Breath'.
At first, I only intended to write up to the point of this journey.
25 years ago, at a church in Rome, a sister told me,
'Build an inner temple.'
'Be with the God who resides there.'
I thought it would end once I wrote about being told that.
But when I finished writing that story,
I wanted to write about what happened afterward as well,
Volume 2, Volume 3,
Finally, in the fourth volume,
I was able to return to this 'Promise with the Forest'.
However, when I began writing what followed,
I collapsed myself, fell into silence,
and I could not help but write about the process of regaining my breath.
Before I knew it, 'Pilgrimage of Breath' had become a nine-volume series.
And then, something even more mysterious happened.
After I finished writing it,
I thought I would never open those books again.
The past was over.
That is what I believed.
However,
when I began to write 'Inner Pilgrimage' again,
I found myself rereading 'Pilgrimage of Breath'.
In those pages,
the answers I was currently searching for were already written.
It was then that I realized for the first time.
'Pilgrimage of Breath'
was not an autobiography for looking back at the past.
It was a compass left for my future self.
Looking back, I had intended to write just one book.
But
that one book became the nine-volume 'Pilgrimage of Breath',
continued into 'Inner Pilgrimage',
and is now heading toward 'The Promise with the Forest: Continued', which I plan to write in another ten years.
I thought I was writing a story.
But now I think.
Perhaps I was not writing a story, but rather, I have been walking, guided by the story.
And there is one more thing
that I can understand only now.
'The Promise with the Forest'
was initially born as the first installment of the 'Prayer Journey' series.
But having finished all nine volumes, I realize something.
This journey was not a journey to find 'prayer'.
It was a journey to remember the soul itself,
guided by my breath.
Starting from a forest on a small island in Hawaii,
the Roman church that served as the foreshadowing,
the ecovillage where I lived in harmony with nature,
the breathing technique I encountered in Bali, and finally, home.
Looking back, it was all
a journey to reunite with my 'true self'.
I am writing 'Inner Pilgrimage: A Record of Returning to the Breath of Here and Now'.
To live out the promise I made in the forest that day, in my daily life.
And so that one day, I may return to the promised land and write 'The Promise with the Forest: Sequel'.
May you, who happened upon this note,
also walk the journey of remembering your own soul,
without fear.
******
🌿 An e-book published on the Summer Solstice, June 21, 2025
I hope you will gently touch the 'voice of the forest' within you.🍃
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0FF3VK2JZ
You can read the 9-volume 'Pilgrimage of Breath' here.
May this place
be a quiet entrance that connects you to your inner wind.
Writer: ETSUKO ITOH (Etsuko)
A non-fiction writer who pens 'Pilgrimage of Breath', 'The Promise with the Forest', and 'Inner Pilgrimage'.
Living a life with forests, gardens, tea, and prayer, I record my journey of returning to stillness while gazing at the 'truth before it becomes words'.
On Instagram, I post poetry and watercolor illustrations of my stories.
On YouTube, I share short films featuring narration and visuals.