I've got some nic-knacks

After returning from Thailand, Bhutan and India I have this really impressive collection of nic-knacks. Oh, dread, I didn't think I was one of "those.
There is a mini prayer wheel, because I have to now spin my prayers as well as recite them out loud and under my breath;
A bronze buddha with his hands over his mouth, "speak no evil" he tells me. This goes with my new concept I am trying out called,
"Be Nice." I have imagined that I have tattooed those words on the inside of my left hand, and when I want to be bitchy or sarcastic, I look there, and sometimes, I hold my tongue. Less apologizing, so I think it is working.
Third, there is Ganesha, the Himdu God/ess of Good luck/fortune; I figured I could use that.

The other stuff is still shackled in wrapped newspaper:

Sayings by The Dalai Lama, a lotus candle holder, hand woven scarfs, silk scarfs, carvings, statues, a key chain, mala beads and necklaces... just as much as I could fit in my suitcase.

Now what?

Christmas

Messy Blog. What to do?

Riding a boat on the Chao Phraya River

was almost flooded when we were there. very close. Lots of floods and Typhoons happening that side of the world last month. We skirted them all, fortunately.

Moonrise in Bangkok

Staying at the historic Oriental Hotel on the banks of the Chao Phraya River.
what a site...

Sunday in the Sky

The bright yellow leaves of fall fell from the trees, and the weather turned from warm to crisp chilling out the evening air so much that one was inclined to shiver. We decided to follow suit. We left our home in Aspen, and the namesake, nearly naked, Aspen trees, for places that promised heat and humidity and languages created from symbols we could not even recognize.
Thailand is a place that is beyond anything I have known. There are parts of a known universe – the climate feels like Hawaii, I have eaten their food and even practiced the ancient style of bodywork that bears the country’s name, but beyond that, the curly style of the Thai alphabet and the sounds that come from the curious and courteous populous are completely foreign.
There is complete chaos outside on the streets and such a relative calm within the confines of the Amanpuri Resort where we relax on the beach, searching out a cloud in the blue sky and digging our feet in the sand.



We are attended to by throngs of eager staff who greet us with a cheerful “Swadee Ka” everywhere we go bringing their hands together into a prayer position in front of their chest, bowing and lowering their eyes. I find myself doing the same; the custom comes easily to me from the “Namaste” spoken and hands together in prayer at the end of each yoga class I teach or take.
My husband and I awoke here in Thailand on Monday with our heads still full of the clouds we were flying over since Friday night.
Sunday, it seems, never happened.
We slept through it hovering over the earth at 35,000 feet and lost it completely due to the 13-hour time difference between Colorado and Thailand.




Sunday in the Sky: it was full of dreams and disasters (I always dream of dying while flying strangely), turbulence and transfers.

What would have happened on that fateful lost Sunday? Is that the day I might have stopped thinking and talking about all my big ideas and I would have started doing something about them? Was it on that lost Sunday that I was going to make the connections I have been wanting to make? Is that the day my forlorn friends would decide to let go of that imaginary space that has been keeping us apart, would the resentment and judgment that we have held for each other have disappeared on the one day that didn’t actually exist in my lifetime?
The day that was lost in the clouds?
Is it possible my family would have figured out a way to find financial security on Sunday?
Is that the day the Japanese agreed to stop slaughtering dolphins or the day that little girls in Thailand, Cambodia and India were freed from the horrors of sex slavery?
Maybe I missed the binding agreement where all the nations of the world readily agreed that climate change was real and that we would all take drastic steps to reduce this evitable warming…
Were zoo animals, journalists and other innocent creatures in captivity freed?

Or, maybe I just slept through another day when I would have been dreaming - whether I was high in the sky or sitting on the earth, awake or asleep - surrounded by my ideas and hopes and my desire to change the world for good, but with the same foggy jet-lagged feeling keeping it from happening.

Maybe.

weather

Living with Intent
not expectations
every day


Imagine an Aspen forest, full of beautiful trees
and assign a loved one to each of those trees
knowing that, as an Aspen forest,
we are separate looking from above
but completely connected underneath

we are one

As you visualize the Aspen forest
imagine snow falling

soft and thick
watch as the snowflakes land on those Aspen trees
soaking in
gathering, building up
falling
melting absorbing and
eventually
flowing towards the sea
through so many rivers and streams

our life's journeys

the snowflakes are the intent

your intent

how do you live?
why do you do what you do?

what do you want?
why?

what are you striving for?

Remember
there could be something infinitely better in store for you
that you never even though of
don't get stuck
just put it out there and allow what is to be

see it

energy moving

visualize those snowflakes, your intent,
falling down on you from above

clarity
peace
compassion
wisdom
strength
success
freedom in thought and action

Be receptive enough to take it in
and let it melt into your skin
and see it falling and falling

infinitely

if it is meant to be
it will be

don't fight it

like the weather

we can't make it snow
but we do know

eventually

those flakes will fall

Intent

I want to live a life of impact and significance

I want to inspire those around me

I want

clarity
compassion
love
respect
peace

in my life
in yours

I want an end to suffering for all beings

I want freedom

for

women
in the world

I want health and happiness for my friends and family
I want Stephanie to be free from cancer
and my brother free to live

I want all the little beings to know
life is not about stuff

not about

"I want",

Ironically.