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Archive for the 'Reflections' Category

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When We Try To Love

Thursday, May 11th, 2017

I think I love you from Xiya Lan on Vimeo.

Down Time In Chiang Mai

Tuesday, December 6th, 2016
Down time is lovely…and necessary. Ensconsed in my Thai style guesthouse by the Ping Rver, I connected my little bluetooth speakers… listening to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” and of course Leonard Cohen who always puts me in a reflective mood.

There is a song…”you take the weather with you.” You are already “home.” The place doesn’t matter. You just have to put yourself somewhere. But I can’t imagine being in one place year round without getting out periodically and meeting strangers on the road who are on the same wavelength and who I’d never meet otherwise. Intimacy is anywhere there are people. And people tend to share more personal with people who they think they probably won’t see ever again. However I’ve had more than my share of serendipity coincidences meeting people again in another country.

Requires a little travel money. And mobility. With a little heart thrown in. But even in a wheelchair airports are manageable.  Give a little tip to the employee who whisks you right through security and immigration and to the gate. And to the restroom or ATM and whatever else.  Even to the next terminal. Even up to the plane in a hydaulic lift if you need it. Along with all the ancient and infirm Chinese ladies!

One of the most inspirational experiences I’ve ever had was meeting an 80 year old Russian Jew from NYC with a cane in the mountains of southern China visiting the Miao people who nearly fell getting out of the van.  Said once a year he goes somewhere. I blessed his heart.

Anarchy

Tuesday, June 28th, 2016
[caption id="attachment_4696" align="aligncenter" width="539" caption="My New T-Shirt"][/caption] The inverse reality of anarchy is that we must continually question ourselves as well as authority. The strongest survival instinct is self deception because the illusion ... [Continue reading this entry]

Thoughts Upon Turning 72

Friday, June 3rd, 2016
After retirement in 2002 I traveled 4 years nonstop and then just wanted to stay put in one place where I could make some good friends and really dig into one culture other than the one I was born in...the ... [Continue reading this entry]

My Problem With Facebook

Saturday, July 11th, 2015
I like to keep in touch. Connection I hate small talk. I wanna talk about atoms, death, aliens, sex, magic, intellect, the meaning of life, faraway galaxies, the lies you’ve told, your flaws, your favorite scents, your childhood, what keeps you up ... [Continue reading this entry]

Respect

Thursday, June 4th, 2015
Having spent three months in Oregon and Las Vegas, I have become so much more aware of the cultural differences between the north American first world and Mexico. The first Americans were independent and forward looking. They were looking to expand ... [Continue reading this entry]

Salem Coffee House Easter

Sunday, April 5th, 2015
Three weeks has turned into three months in Oregon. Rain alternating with sun and hail. That's the NW. The CT scan, what I came up here for, showed esophageal varicies but the endoscopy didn’t. Hmmm. So more medical follow up. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Travel Is A Drug

Sunday, April 5th, 2015
The traveler’s high. You’ve no doubt felt it, upon disembarking in a realm where all is unfamiliar. Travel is a drug. It reboots reality, tweaks the senses, and becomes addictive. I crave total autonomy, and shy away from responsibility and attachment. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Rewriting Marilyn Monroe

Thursday, March 12th, 2015
Only parts of us will ever touch only parts of others. One’s own truth is just that really — One’s own truth. We can only share The part that is understood - Acceptable to the other — Therefore one is for the most part ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mexicans and Americans

Saturday, January 24th, 2015
LOL
A boat was docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village. A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and... asked how long it took to catch them. "Not very long" they answered in unison. "Why didn't you stay out ... [Continue reading this entry]

Courage

Monday, October 20th, 2014
In my introduction to this blog about 15 years ago, I said I was looking for clarity. looking for signs of courage…of strength of conviction rooted in heart…in an authentic identity, in myself as well as in others. Courage ... [Continue reading this entry]

Fight Club…A Conversation With My Son

Thursday, October 9th, 2014
After a weird dinner at a remote roadside Vietnamese/Thai/Chinese restaurant a few miles outside Oaxaca City the other day, I received a black (black?) fortune cookie with the fortune written in Spanish. "You always know your heart through your words." ... [Continue reading this entry]

Slow

Tuesday, October 7th, 2014

Love Itself

Monday, September 29th, 2014
Exquisite. Clearest expression of an experience in meditation I've ever heard. In...and out again in the space between the "Nameless and the Named." The inner silence and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Who Do We Trust?

Wednesday, September 24th, 2014
Trust is a double edged sword. It may slay us on the outside. But too much caution may slay us on the inside. Keeping our lens clear is how we know the difference between the two at any one moment. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Facebook Is Not The Problem

Wednesday, September 17th, 2014
I love to follow former couchsurfers on Facebook. Paul is one of them. Everyone is complaining about the same thing and it's not Facebook. Facebook is not the problem he says. You are. Paul stayed with me a week in Oaxaca ... [Continue reading this entry]

Frank Died Last Night

Thursday, September 11th, 2014
He was "just" a friend...an eccentric friend...but a good friend with heart. For years he spent $70 a month living here. He sat at the same table in the same coffee shop in the Zocalo every single day ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hear That Holy Sound

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014
You see what is in you if you look for it. Traveling the world for the last 12 years I have felt it. Each day is the best day these days...at the age of 70.

Where Have I Been

Monday, September 1st, 2014
Well, it seems Facebook and Couchsurfing groups have taken over my posting as of late. Some recent posts on FB: [caption id="attachment_3284" align="aligncenter" width="234" caption="FBProfile Photo"][/caption] Folk/Rock band playing in Friday Market in Llano ... [Continue reading this entry]

Want To Cry?

Sunday, September 15th, 2013

Where Is Home

Sunday, July 21st, 2013
In his A Global Soul Pico writes "We travel, some of us, to slip through the curtain of the ordinary, and into the presence of whatever lies just outside our apprehension. I fall through ... [Continue reading this entry]

Empathy…You Never Know

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

Wait

Sunday, June 23rd, 2013
Set your dreams where nobody hides Give your tears to the tide No time No time There is no end, there is no goodbye Disappear with night No time No time No time No time No time

Giving the Finger to the Exploiters, Users and Destroyers

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
The NY Times Magazine ironically published an article called "The Opiate of Exceptionalism" or why, as I call it, that Americans seem to stick their heads in the sand when it comes to a civic discussion of sticky issues. Positive ... [Continue reading this entry]

Upon Reading Jose Saramago

Tuesday, August 28th, 2012
Upon receiving his Nobel prize for literature, Jose Saramago said: "As I could not and did not aspire to venture beyond my little plot of cultivated land, all I had left was the possibility of digging down, underneath, towards the roots. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Long Term Travel

Monday, July 9th, 2012
"I felt like I was into a new routine and the constanly changing, spectacular scenery was losing it's 'novelty' or 'wow' factor. Somehow the 500th spectacular beach had become the norm. This said by a guy who had spent a year ... [Continue reading this entry]

Dangers of Humor Across Cultures

Saturday, April 14th, 2012
A friend in a Couchsurfing forum observed that when he first moved to Malta he would try jokes, wry observations, and other kinds of humor I was used to back in New Hampshire and Boston. I'd usually receive blank stares, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Occupy Wall Street Transforming Consciousness

Monday, October 17th, 2011
Meltdown: The Men Who Crashed The World This is a 4 part documentary of the worldwide financial crisis and the inside story ... [Continue reading this entry]

Reflections on July 4

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
JULY 4th Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Brick Wall In Mexico is Me

Monday, June 13th, 2011
Comparing being in any country that is not your birth country for 2 weeks and being in a country for an extended period of time is apples and oranges. Take a look here: It's not easy. I have been ... [Continue reading this entry]

Do You Even Know What Is On The Internet?

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
Internet Friends! A Norwegian friend just posted this on a www.couchsurfing.com forum that made me laugh: If the stone age son did what the stone age father told him to, we would still be in the stone age And another couchsurfing forum member ... [Continue reading this entry]

Window Closes…Another Opens

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
New York Times The Summer That Ended All Summers By JOSH WEIL Published: August 21, 2010 Leverett, Mass.
No one — not the doctor in Cairo with his egret-feather hair and bad-news eyes; not the spinal surgeon, with his broad Egyptian shoulders and eagerness ... [Continue reading this entry]

When We Don’t Know That We Don’t Know

Monday, June 21st, 2010
I have begun asking myself, why is it so hard to put aside our assumptions that we have the corner on the truth and the other guy is dead wrong. (besides ego of course.) I just read an essay in ... [Continue reading this entry]

He he! Andy Rooney on Women Over 50

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
In case you missed it on 60 Minutes, this is what Andy Rooney thinks about women over 50 60 Minutes Correspondent Andy Rooney (CBS) “As I grow in age, I value women over 50 most of all. Here are just a few ... [Continue reading this entry]

Comfort From Morning Tai Chi

Sunday, June 13th, 2010
Early each quiet Sunday morning, sitting on my veranda, I watch a small group of people practicing their Tai Chi in the park below. This morning I ponder my birthday tomorrow.  How did I get to be 66 already? Then ... [Continue reading this entry]

Surreal Senility Or Sneaky Sane?

Sunday, June 13th, 2010
3brashinappropriate.jpg This cartoon originally appeared on womensEnews.org.  Check out more of the New Yorker cartoonist's work at lizadonnelly.com ("How I Do and Don't want to be Helen Thomas.") and on her [Continue reading this entry]

Does The Government Do Anything Right?

Thursday, April 8th, 2010
I think the folks that argue that the the government can't do anything right  should voluntarily give up all their tax supported services. I found this on a personal blog on the web: This morning I was awoken by my ... [Continue reading this entry]

More Thoughts On Dialogue…Aikido

Sunday, September 20th, 2009
In the Indian tradition of Anekantavada, the doctrine of non-absolutism, there are three ways to have a dialogue : 'vaad' or a discussion, which seeks to understand the opponent's point of view and explain one's own in order to reach ... [Continue reading this entry]

Non-Absolutism-The Principle of Multiple Views

Friday, September 18th, 2009

 

 A friend posted this on a couchsurfing forum today.

Anekantavada, the doctrine of non-absolutism, a multi-dimensional approach is of paramount importance in today’s troubled times.  Anekant is a basic principle of ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Last Kennedy Brother 1932-2009

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
I am thankful that some of us, in a cynical time, can still be touched enough to shed tears for, not only a man, but for an entire very human family, and what it stood for. Years after the death ... [Continue reading this entry]

An Unlikely Discussion About Bodily Remains

Saturday, August 8th, 2009
This is actually kind of funny... My husband wrote me and our three sons an email the other day telling us what he wants done with his body if something happens to him in Thailand...where he lives...where he has regular bouts ... [Continue reading this entry]

Letter To A Mother’s Adult Children

Thursday, July 30th, 2009
My thoughts after nearly 40 years of thinking about this subject and watching this 21 minute speech by Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, who challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if "we don’t always get what we ... [Continue reading this entry]

Resilience

Thursday, February 26th, 2009
A man sleeps every night on a wrought iron bench in the park across the street from my apartment in Oaxaca Mexico.  At 6 o'clock,  he wakes and prepares for the day. He is dressed in slacks and a sweater ... [Continue reading this entry]

Deconstructing A Childhood Religion

Saturday, February 21st, 2009
This documentary shows how a "modern" articulate and caring non-practicing Muslim woman tries to come to terms with her childhood religion.  I could have substituted myself in the film, with the exception of the catalyst of 9/11, replacing the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Thoughts After Guatemala

Friday, February 13th, 2009
Who are we really? One of the reasons I like indigenous people is the humility with which they harmonize with their surroundings and environments...but progress and modernity upset this natural equilibrium.  Which is what I think we are witnessing in the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Study Finds Happiness Is Contageous

Sunday, December 7th, 2008
A study of the relationships of nearly 5,000 people tracked for decades in the Framingham Heart Study shows that good cheer spreads through social networks of nearby family, friends and neighbors. By Karen Kaplan December 5, 2008 LA Times They say misery loves company, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Making The Inward Turn

Sunday, September 28th, 2008
When one stops moving...constantly having one's awareness being drawn outward when traveling...integration begins... and reflection. I have been home since the middle of June after six months in Asia...losing myself in the mundane and thoughtless but pleasurable duties of house and ... [Continue reading this entry]

You Know You Are A Traveller When…

Friday, April 25th, 2008
Found a great thread on a Bootsnall Forum so I picked out the ones I could relate to and added some of my own. You know you are a traveller when: you spell traveller with two l’s. (Every other English speaker in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Speaking Of Hope

Friday, March 28th, 2008
Mexican journalist and author, Gustavo Esteva, in writing recently about the wrenching repression and resistance in Mexico and the world, draws an analogy:
    The Pot and the Vapor
In the midst of the daily struggle, an image attempting to express what ... [Continue reading this entry]

Alastair Says It For Us

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
A 25 year old Brit, Alastair Humphreys, spent more than four years bicycling through Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, North America, and Asia. This is what he says he learned: "That the world is a good place filled with ... [Continue reading this entry]