Love and Happy Day to my family and friends~
I hope this finds you healthy and well and enjoying life.
this photo is of me riding superman backwards on the merry go round. Haven’t taken many photo’s.
I have sat down a few times to write about Thailand and never get very far. There is so much to say, so much to share, but I’m finding that rather than writing I spend my time on other creative endeavors like painting, making greeting cards and other artwork. I find I do most of my updates on facebook where I am able to stay connected with the relationships I have created on previous trips as well as with many at home.
Here is a bit of my trip thus far….
the realization that family really can be created anywhere. Not at all to diminish my relationship with my relatives at home all of whom I like, love and enjoy very much. I would so enjoy spending time with my friends from USA, but you are there and I am here.
I am staying at the best guesthouse I have ever enjoyed anywhere in Asia…
small, lush tropical garden just outside my room, covered veranda with massage mat on floor where I sit and eat or do body work or receive massage, my outdoor painting studio set up on the covered table in the corner of the garden, adjacent wall my painting station, the lawn my drying rack for my frenetic, voluminous piles of paintings on paper, canvas and burlap bags that chili’s are packed in.
Lovely garden courtyard 50′ away with other bungalows lining it, adjacent to the open air kitchen where Dang and Moi serve us breakfast each morning in the dining area or garden. The kitchen is available for us to use, cooking most of the time in community with other guests here, sometimes only two or three of us eating together, other times 6 or 8 having a ‘family dinner’ which we’ve all pitched in on, luscious offerings of what everyone makes best, lots of laughter, sometimes dancing, always positive energy and lots of love.
I am the elder here much of the time, given the gift of realizing that aging is an incredible gift full of wisdom, insights and experiences. Also realizing that my vitality, energy level, outlook and way of being belie my nearly 50 years on the planet. Being among so many younger people has made me realize I am indeed ‘older’, I hadn’t really realized it before.
People at the guesthouse I am at are from different parts of Europe, Australia, Russia, Asia, USA, most are travelling alone, some for several months, none for less than several weeks. Some have left partners and children at home, choosing time with themselves as perhaps one of the greatest gifts one can given oneself. We have in common the fact that time, time to travel, time to be, time to explore, is a priority for us. We have all created lives that have the gift of time. It is a precious gift to be among such folks, who have time to unplug, tune in, and simply BE.
I have not gotten much buying done. Been here for 11 weeks, have bought almost nothing, finding myself entirely unmotivated to do anything related to the business of making money, instead choosing to spend my time investing in my mental, physical, spiritual well being. I have massage several times a week, several hours a week, my favorite is Mr. Sinchai a blind master healer who has done wonders for my shoulder injury (MRI proves that it is a completely torn rotator cuff, the doctor here told me my only option was surgery and just snickered when I told him I intended to grow my tendon back and would not consider surgery as an option. Tendons don’t grow. Well, neither do teeth, but that didn’t stop me from healing a tooth I was told desperatly needed a root canal). I visit with Oskar, an American energy worker who is intuitive, psychic, and has given me the gift of removing longheld false beliefs that I was not even aware of. Incredible.
My days are spent painting, exploring, cooking, sharing experiences. Getting all of my mercury fillings romoved, lots of dental work. Perhaps other guests and I will double up on our motorbikes and a group of us head up the mountain into the forest for a day of exploring hilltribe villages, coffee plantation, lake on the other side. Or drive out to a friends home and walk the banana forest while overlooking the valley and mountains beyond, all the while plucking fresh fruit on the way. Morning trips to the organic market down the street, abundant fresh luscious fruits and veggies abound. Dinners and lunches with old friends from previous trips. Painting in the garden with Dang and Moi , who speak no english and I speak very little Thai, yet we spend hours painting together, they are unaccustomed to interacting with guests this way, the guesthouse owner would not approve, so they were hesitant about doing so at first.
The weather is warm, tropical, maybe 5 days of rain in 11 weeks, high 70’s to high 80’s every day. It is winter so some nights are cool (50’s) but usually mid 60’s, sunny nearly every single day. Beautiful flowers, happy birds and butterflies. I love Chiang Mai and have mused that if I never left here it would be fine, this is home to me. Would be so grateful if LB was here though, and I do think of people at home and miss them, but am mostly in the moment here.
It is difficult to explain how all these weeks, so little work has gotten done, there are many days when I never leave the guesthouse, find myself in profound, thoughtful, deep, humerous, interesting and enriching conversations with the people here. I have now been here longer than anyone else at this guesthouse, there have been two different little family groups of us so far that have bonded and enjoyed each other, while some people come and only stay a couple of weeks, others are here for longer. Most are studying massage at one of the several top Thai massage schools close to here. Those that are not holistic health practitioners at home have jobs that range from oceanographer, chef, yoga instructor, green architect, teacher, sky dive instructor, bicycle tour guide. Many of them, despite their other jobs, are healers, learning a new skill. Nearly all are open to the changes happening all around us at this paradigm shift. I offer myself for them to practice their massage skills on, have received cranio sacral work, accupunctture, abdominal massage, tarrot card readings, group energy workshops, all here at my lovely little guesthouse from fellow travellers. All are tuned into simplistic living to allow themselves the opportunity for this time abroad.
I am in a place where time abundance is the order of the day. Some days I do nothing but reflect, share thoughts, eat yummy healthy goods and paint. Many days, in fact. I am in heaven, paradise, I am doing exactly what I want to be doing right now. And I am grateful. There is nothing I want for, nothing I need.
One never knows what is to unfold on a journey. I am embracing the unknown, lessening my attachments, living simply and simply living. Many months in a culture where people live simply yet abundantly is a profound gift. This is a culture of feminine energy, very little ego, where anger, aggression, hostility are simply not part of what they project. It is called the land of smiles, and it is so.
Our world is changing and I am changing too. I feel profound love and gratitude for all that I have, realizing the truth that all of it could change or be gone in an instant, without warning. Impermanence. This life is but a fleeting moment in time, it is to be savored and not wasted. Being with myself, exploring and growing, learning and sharing, are the best use of my time right now. It is a gift, this time, these months.
Love, light, goodness and abundant positivity to you. May we all align ourselves with mother earth, embracing the changing times, love one another, we are all one.
PEACE!
Click the picture for the google map of where Brenda’s at.
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