Video about a woman's quest for peace (not me)

I get a monthly newsletter from www.Gratefulness.org This video was referred to in the latest issue. It takes around 25 minutes to watch and of course I have some questions about what this woman was doing...........but I have great respect for a lot of what she did and learned. http://www.turntowardlife.tv/vijali_world_wheel/display_large/video_player_16x9_large.htm

If you have time and inclination.............take a break and watch it. Let me know what you think, if you want tol

How do I sit with it all?

I do not quite know how to be here. I am hyper-sensitized by my time in Thailand.

I think it all started 4 years ago in India. When I got to India, my being felt like I had found “HOME” in a very profound way. One of my main memories is standing in the middle of the lake bed in Udaipur, Rajastan, in the early morning and listening to the Muslim call to prayer in one ear and the Hindu morning chanting in the other. I loved the pluralism. I loved the calling out in prayer. I loved the chanting.

Being in Thailand I saw the many many many faces and representations of the Buddha. There was a Buddha for each day of the week. A different position. A different look and feel. Some Buddhas are more androgynous than others. All felt generous of spirit. None were as scary to me as Jesus on a cross. All together giving me that sense of permission for one to find the personal image of Buddha that spoke to you. I like that. It was a different pluralism for me.

I returned to the states humbled. I remain quite open and vulnerable. Sometimes that is hard, but I would not trade it. I am just trying to learn from it. I am just noticing. I hear the adversarial nature of our interactions. I hear the ‘right and wrong’ judgment in our talking. I see the fear and self protection. I notice the multi-culturalism that is present in this country and our separations within that. I am aware of our fear of death. It seems very different in Thailand or India; I do not believe they fear death as we do. I wonder if that is the core of much of the differences.

I do not have answers, but many questions……..I encourage you to please share your thoughts/ponderings with me as well.

Continuing at home

I started this blog as a traveling journal. I was encouraged after sending many emails back from India. I used the emails to give insights and impressions of my visit to another culture. Before going to Thailand I decided to blog my travels as oppose to trying to remember all the people to email…and also because blogging allows people to check in to see the entry as oppose to being invaded by emails.

So it seems appropriate to continue this idea of “Ambassador of Humanity” while I am home. I want to share my thoughts with my friends and family with the same consideration and respect that I try to do with people in another culture. I am more limited in another culture by language. [Well perhaps I am limited within my own culture with that as well; my x-father-in-relationship once told me “we don’t speak the same language”………but we both spoke English.] At any rate, I think a lot. I do have a degree in Philosophy! Because of the enthusiasm I have heard about my travel blogging, I am going to start trying to just write periodically, or often (we shall see). I hope it will inspire dialog. I hope it will spark further thinking on all of our parts.

We are in an incredible time. One can easily look at the world we live in right now and find overwhelming despair. See the ending of things as we know them and find that fearful. One could predict a horrendous future. OR one can see change. One can see the institutions we have known falling apart and revealing remarkable opportunity. It is an exciting time. It is a scary time. It is an age of enlightenment of a new sort. When my Dad died, the hospice counselor who had been visiting him said “there was a shift in the universe when he died”. Of course I could feel that, but I was taken aback to hear her say it. Well, I think it goes beyond my Dad. I think the crack in the ceiling, the drop in the market, the shakedown/shakeup of our systems, the election of a person who can think outside the box are all signs of a shift happening in the universe. It is a time for self-reflection and creativity. We can no longer count on things being the way they have been, however, we are not bound by what has been either. This year during the holiday season, I heard of more creative ways to ‘deal’ with the season. More toned down, homemade, innovative and heart-felt exchanges than I have heard for a long time. We can do that in many other areas of our life, our work, our living situations….the possibilities are endless.

So I invite you to visit the blog, make comments, contribute; you name it I leave it wide open. I look forward to learning with you. I look forward to getting all these thoughts out of my head so maybe I can sleep better at night. And I thank you for your encouragement.

Less plastic and more glue guns!
Karen

Moving slow

Home again, home again jiggity jig...........well, through my jet lagged eyes, I see a lot of White people who all seem to speak English.....it was nice to be around dark hair and dark eyes all the time, though I was too hesitent to get a hair cut, as I don't think they know curly hair!!!.

Last night though my body was exhausted, my eyes popped open when I went to lay down cause it was really the middle of the afternoon............I put on Jami's album, HIDDEN SKY and allowed it to ease me to sleep. I awoke at some point, feeling my astral body catching up to my physical body. It tingled.........an odd feeling.

I am home and as much as I want to linger in the thoughts, smells, feelings of Thailand, in following Buddhist practices........."be present"..........I am attempting to embrace all that brings me back to Seattle and keeps me here. I have to say my bed is a big one!!! Beds in Thailand suck!

Welcome home........I am sure I will have more to say as time goes on but for now.......I thank all of you who have shared my journey through my words and pictures.

Things I have learned for traveling.........welll some of them!

1-Take your cell phone. One can get an international card to use on your cell phone and it is much easier han trying to find Public International Phones that work.

2- If you are using a travel guide, like Lonely Planet, go to the towns that only mention a few guesthouses or hotels, they will still be visitor friendly but not over-run with tourists. (Assuming you want to engage more with the locals than other travelers from all over the world)

3- IF you are taking a rolling suitcase, take one that is big enough to give you room to find things and buy things without having to send them home with other friends or so carefully stuffing things into the case. Traveling with a small one for a month allowed me to feel righteous but proved more difficult in the long run. And once you are wheeling and not backpacking, it really makes no difference.

4- Put yourself out there.............even if you can't speak the language, any attempt is so appreciated and met with willing assistance. People may laugh at you, but it is in good spirit.

5- Journal............any way you do it.............it is hard to remember all that you have done a month later if you don't write it down, or draw it or take pictures. And along those lines, if you take pictures, bring an extra flash card to store them on...........it would be a bummer to lose them.

6- Enjoy enjoy enjoy!!!!

Chinese New Years

What a way to end this amazing adventure.............In Chinatown in Bangkok!!! Oh my oh my.

I met Janet, a friend of Karen Allman's who lives in Bangkok and we walked and took a boat taxi and walked and walked, (good thing since I will be sitting a lot tomorrow) to Chinatown. What a scene. What an adventure..........until we both got clostrophobic and had to walk down a quiet alley, where we bumped into the Chinese School building, where they were expecting the Royal Princess. We both thought it would be grand fun and so we waited..........and waited and waited.........well 2 hours later, with a lot of false alarms..........we just had to give up, since I need to get ready to go back to the states tomorrow. Then a tuk tuk back to my guest house, where I helped a prof from Bellingham get his computer working!!!

I guess I am getting prepared to go back to work life and home!!!

Enjoy the photos.

See you soon.

moving toward home

Back in the big city, Jami, Beth and I celebrated our time with a pedicure!! Can you identify MY toes?


Back in Chiang Mai...........tomorrow morning I fly to Bangkok, in time for Chinese New Years and then the next day begin my journey toward home, with a six hour layover in Taiwan. What a month it has been. And even though I have tried to write as things were happening............so much more went on. My eyes and my heart are filled. There are no simple concise words to tell you all that happens when one visits another culture. Because of Jami's connections in Thailand, I have been privy to a bit deeper understanding, a tad more of an 'insider' view............and yet...........we are still just visitors. Jami and I came up with the title for the book.........."When Do You Move Beyond Kha?" A woman uses kha at the end of words to be polite to guests, strangers, unrelated elders, etc...........so when does one move to the status of an inimate friend that no longer needs the kha at the end. And even once you get there, Thai people, as a generalization are very private and very polite....so can a farang (foreigner) ever really know what is going on? Can an outsider ever really be a part of the culture?





Yesterday we went to a hot springs and sat in the pools with 3 generations. I played with the water with baby and grandma........we laughed..........it felt good but I had no understanding of what they were saying and why sometimes they were laughing........but we found a common space with playing. So yes, one can tough the common space. One can even find good friendships but how in this huge globe and we truly be as one people when we have so little understanding.





Yet each trip, each interaction that reaches beyond the distances, each attempt at honoring the uniqueness of a person..........makes it a little closer, a little kinder. I am thrilled to be an explorer. I am thrilled to be an ambassador. I am humbled by it all. And on this trip, I added the thrill of inter-species connections as well.