Heart to Heart

What a beautiful and colorful big heart we created with all the wishes from Ms. Jana Barnhill, the International President 2008-2009; Mr. George Yen, the 2nd Vice International President; Mr. Keith Ostergard, the Region 13 Director; Mr. Mike Yang, D67 Governor, and many Toastmasters in District 67!

心の物語: It is a story about the big heart and the friendship between Taiwanese and Japanese Toastmasters in year 2011. Nobody would have thought it would be a story of a heart. It was just what we could have given from the bottom of our hearts at the very beginning.

Friday evening, April 22nd, I escorted five Toastmasters from D76, including Toshio Yada 矢田敏雄 (District 76 Secretary), Yoshikazu Kawakami 河上悅和 (Minato-Mirai TMC), Kozue Sakai 酒井こづゑ (Musashi Kosugi TMC ), Noriyuki Kobori 小堀則之 (Tsukuba TMC), Masaki Oshiumi 鴛海眞樹 (Kitakyushu TMC), to the welcome dinner party hosted by D67 Governor Mike Yang.

After dinner, we rushed to the second party hosted by President Joseph Fan of Innovative Toastmasters Club and five Innovative club members. Be it late in the evening, we held an exciting impromptu tabletopics session for 30 minutes to break the ice among Taiwanese and Japanese Toastmasters.

Before we called it a night, I asked the Toastmasters from D76 if there was anything we Toastmasters in Taiwan could do to convey our feelings towards the Toastmasters members in Sendai and in Kesennuma devastated by the earthquake, 9 on the Richter scale, 11 Mar 2011. We talked about fund-raising, we talked about donation of the clothes, but we were worried about the violation of the bylaws of the Toastmasters International. In the end, we came up with the love project to collect the messages of Taiwanese Toastmasters.

Saturday morning, April 23rd, we started implementing our project from nine o'clock with the help of D67 Spring Conference 2011 ambassadors to write the posters, and Ms. Airi Sakai, the daughter of Toastmaster Kozue Sakai, to purchase the colorful post-it at the nearby Mitsukoshi Department Store. During the two days spring conference, we collected more than 300 heartfelt wishes for our Japanese toastmasters fellows in Sendai and in Kesennuma.

Sunday afternoon, April 24th, after the closing ceremony of D67 Spring Conference 2011, our honorable and dearest International President Jana Barnhill stood before the big heart and wrote her wish and signature on the Japanese flag to complete the big heart of the Toastmasters.

It was the first impromptu ad-hoc project for me to work with the Japanese and Taiwanese Toastmasters, and many Toastmasters dignitaries from the Toastmasters International. It was a beautiful and special experience to see the birth of a big heart, which not only showcased the special bind between D67 and D76, but it also gathered the momentum among Taiwanese Toastmasters to convey our camaderie love to our fellow toastmasters in need in another country or district.

There is a Chinese saying, 眾志成城 (zhòng zhì chéng chéng) Unity is Strength. A big heart was born by you and me, of you and me, and for you and me! When we are heart to heart, we'll hold together! When we are hand in hand, we'll find a way!

Songwriters: PAUL KENNERLEY, EMMYLOU HARRIS

Heart to heart we'll hold together
Hand in hand we'll find a way
Oh, the storms of life may blind us
But with the loving vows that bind us

Heart to heart hand in hand we'll stay
Side by side forever and always
Day by day till our lives are done
This sweet love is ours to treasure

Far beyond all time and measure
Side by side day by day as one
The years cannot take what's between you and me
We'll stand her together for the whole world to see

Heart to heart there'll be no other
Hand in hand for our love is true
Oh, the words that we have spoken
Will be a promise never broken
Heart to heart hand in hand with you