Amid the woods of Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary near Cincinnati, a black push-button telephone sits atop the sturdy trunk of a sky-high red oak tree. It is easily accessible from the walking trail of this beautiful natural cemetery, but is set slightly off the beaten path to provide privacy. Next to the telephone is a handcrafted cedar bench to sit for a while, reflect, and think. This “wind telephone” was placed in the woods of Heritage Acres by volunteer Julia Sandman to provide comfort to those grieving and a safe place in the trees to connect with their deceased loved ones. The framed message beneath the telephone reads, “This telephone is for anyone who has lost a loved one. The telephone is an outlet for those who have messages for their lost friends and family members. It is a telephone for memories and to say goodbyes that were never able to be said.”
The first wind telephone was installed by Itaru Sasaki in his garden near Otsuchi, Japan, one of the areas most affected by the tsunami of March 11, 2011. Sasaki originally built the telephone booth to communicate with a cousin who had recently died of cancer. However, after the tsunami, Sasaki opened his telephone booth to anyone willing to make the pilgrimage there and express their grief. This old-fashioned telephone booth with a rotary dial phone quickly became a lifeline for those who had lost loved ones in the tsunami. On a broader scale, it has launched a movement that has inspired people to build and install such telephones all over the world.
As we navigate the complexities of grief, it’s important that we have a safe space to express ourselves, but not everyone has access to a grief counselor or someone else to share their feelings with. Wind phones may be able to provide that safe space. As personally unique as the grieving process itself, the experience of using a wind phone is different for everyone. Some may find it cathartic and healing, while others may simply appreciate the quiet opportunity to reflect on their feelings and memories of someone they have lost. Those who believe in an afterlife or a spiritual existence beyond the human form may feel a connection to their loved one that is comforting and affirming. The wind phone offers this gentle way to let the wind carry your voice to the spirit of a deceased person.
Even though the symbolic phone call may only exist in our hearts and minds, it creates a tangible connection with those we have lost and allows us to speak the unspoken, to say what we wish we had said before death, to whisper adoptionto say I love you once again to right a wrong. It gives us the opportunity to experience that heartfelt moment with our friend or loved one that can help bring us closer to the path through grief and healing. Even though you know that this phone is not connected by physical wires to a larger communications system that can reach any place in the world, you may feel a strong connection in your heart.
Reverend Deborah Rundlett, interviewed on a 2023 episode of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” explained that the wind phone is “a means by which you can have the conversations you haven’t been able to have – the good, the bad, the ugly – and know that the wind is carrying them to the source that needs to receive them.”
When you pick up the receiver of a wind phone and dial the number of a loved one you miss, there is a powerful psychological and emotional process at work that goes beyond logic. It may be a number you’ve dialed thousands of times or just a handful of times, but that act of calling that phone number and speaking into the receiver has an emotional significance that can be surprising and, if not life-changing, then grief-altering.
Why has interest in wind phones increased so much in recent years? Is it the possibility of contact or connection, or does it stir something within us that affects our perception of the great mystery that awaits us all? It all depends on what you think you hear when you listen to the wind phone receiver. Perhaps using the wind phone allows us to listen to our own inner knowledge and wisdom long enough to experience a deeper understanding of our own existence.
Wind phones are usually push-button phones or old, repurposed rotary dial phones. We live in an age where our lives are dominated by the digital and virtual, where our “data” is stored in a cyberspace cloud that can leave us feeling powerless. The tactile experience of dialing a number on an analog phone gives us a break from the digitized world. The phones come in all shapes and sizes, some with a booth, many without. When we enter the space dedicated to a wind phone, we take a break from the everyday and potentially experience the extraordinary.
The wind phone in the forest at Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary is just one of many that have been installed around the world, and interest in them continues to grow. Mywindphone.com collects location information on these phones for those seeking this grief management option. The more wind phones that are installed in private and public spaces around the world, the closer we can get to normalizing grief and helping others and ourselves fully understand that it is OK to feel grief and want to share it with those we have lost.
