snippets from a travel journal

On Friendship
June 10th, 2011


I'm happy for my old friends who get where I come from, and happy for my 'newer' friends who get where I'm coming from.


On Seeing - What is your vision for your spiritual practice in 2012?
June 17th, 2011


Going home.  Remember to be true. 


On Tapas (Heat) - What stoked your fire?
June 11th, 2011


Things I learned
~ I'm braver than I think
~ My body is stronger that I think
~ I LOVE watermelon
~ I can be naive
~ Backpacking is tough shit
~ To  love and respect my body
~ To embrace my femininity
~ A cold shower won't, in fact, kill me
~ I don't need meat
~ I want to be good.  Not just at what I do but how I live


On Dukha - Misery
April 12th, 2011 - Village of Kalidrum

It's like a scene out of a movie.  A burnt down house.  Only memories of a kitchen remain.  Blackened cabinets, a broken teapot with roses painted across the side.  A lady's teapot.  A row of cracked, stained glasses line the middle shelf.  Stained from what.  Time?  Sulphur?


The edges of what's left of the wall are burnt and crumbled.  Empty door frames stand strong where wooden doors perished in the fire.  volcanic sulphur, 600 degrees whisked this village away after Mt. Merapi errupted back in November.


Bare trees and rubble now occupy this once lush place.  A small bamboo warung has been put up just beside the ruins where I sit.  A small beachy hut.  The blue sky coming in through the open windows a sharp contrast to the destruction left from the blast.

I've never seen something like this.  It seems so small, as if this kitchen once belonged to a little girl.  As if this was all her place of makebelieve and it was all just taken away in an instant.  Devastation.


On Sukha - Happiness
Feb 18th, 2011 (Korea)

This is where it all began, where I really started to feel at 'home'.  The Children's Park.  I remember the first week of school searching for a place with some green, a place to go for walks.  I remember how proud I was the first time I actually found my way here (and even prouder finding my way home after the third try).  Just how independent I felt finding my way through the streets of Busan.  I remember coming here with Mike during his first couple of months here for picnics and falling deeper in love with every bite.
I'm really going to miss Korea.  Even though I wasn't able to verbally communicate with so many of the people I encountered here there was an understanding, a connection that was made anyways, based on feeling and heart and smiles.