I am a wanderer making a home in my soul
The Divine is my shelter and my warmth
The stars are my decorations and the sea my music
The wind is my companion and guide
With these eyes I see the world and with these feet and hands, I touch it
With God I know it
In Love I dwell, in Love I stay, in Love I live
I have just finished a ten day silent meditation retreat on Koh pha Ngan with Agama yoga schoo. It was such a beautiful experience. We were maybe 50 people in the retreat, women and men separated in the yoga hall where we sat for hours a day attempting to find inner stillness and the grace of God in our hearts. We sat, we did Hatha yoga led by our Retreat leader, Claudiu and were told inspirational quotes, stories and poems from the masters like Ramana Maharshi and Rumi and so many more. I rented a bungalow on the beach for the occasion and spent the break time swimming and rocking silently in the hammock. what a beautiful experience and so hard to describe. I really enjoyed guided meditations and new techniques as they helped me to really feel love radiating from my heart, feel my heart, feel stillness and painfree body after hours of sitting. one morning I sat in constant stillness and it was so profound and natural and I have been trying to get back to it since and finding my mind fight with me on that a bit...
I felt inspired and wrote in my journal about the meditations, wrote some poems and wrote a lot of notes on the lectures. The last night we had 'sharing' of our experiences, people sang, read poetry and cried telling their stories. We were all there in totally different journeys and it was amazing to witness and take part in. Amazing how HARD it is to quiet the mind, that stubborn and often restless ego doesn't like to surrender to the heart or to the stillness that our true 'self' IS. so worth the attempt:)
Now, I am getting ready for an ashtanga teacher training course and back in the world of talking and being and people. It is a bit of a shock and I feel tired now that I am not meditating and doing yoga for 11 hours a day! ha... soon I will be starting classes at 6am daily for chanting and yoga and learning the ins and outs of teaching yoga and learning more about the body and ... Ayurvedic Medicine. I am thrilled! I know the struggle to pay for the course is worth it... I am reminding myself daily that all is well in this perfect and complete universe and that money is just energy to exchange and comes when needed and is spent accordingly! I am really looking forward to the opportunity as the experience promises to be mind and heart fulfilling!
I will be living in the jungle close to the school and will have two kittens for company:) and Shai will come out often to stay as well.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Around the world in 80 days plus procrastination
It has been ages since I last caught up the blog. A lot of travel has been done in that time period... and many oceans crossed.
I started at the end of February with a flight to Bangkok and then through Tokyo to California... a very long flight. During my stopover in Tokyo I met a bunch of US military who were on my flight from BKK and sat with them while they drank rum and coke and told them about meditation and yoga:)
I went directly to MCH from the SFO airport and really loved seeing the staff and of course the children again... so much that I came back the next week to assist at park play. Anuhea informed me of the changes that had happened, such as picking a new favorite teacher, her sister attending the school and her new watch:)
I visited Carmel and SF and Novato and Napa... a lot of driving within short distances, seeing childhood friends and newer friends, one meeting was done during my friend's weekly shopping trip to Rainbow market... very north american pace.
Next, I spent a lovely and quick paced week in Bisbee, AZ with my mom, meeting her many new friends, massaging some of them and popping over to Mexico for dinner one night!
The last week of my American travels was spent with the Gordons of the Pacific Northwest:) I stayed with Angel at his home, now converted into the Noesis Temple and was fortunate enough to celebrate the full moon with them. My dad joined me up there and we drove to Luke and Kate's home where I met Alia and played with Asher all weekend.
THEN.... for the European adventure, I started in Dublin with my former neighber from the island, Aisling. She showed me the seaside, introduced me to her friends, took me out in the city and offered me a few guinness beers to change things up a bit from my yogic diet:)
From there, I returned to Torino, where I used to live in 2004 and stayed with my former student and now, very good friend, Anna, who is now in Koh Pha Ngan visiting! I became friends with my former boyfriend, Alessandro. I went to Alba during the trip to see another old friend and got to spend a nice weekend in the Piemonte Hills and in precious Alba, which was having an international film festival.
Finally.... back to my beloved Paris! I stayed with Sophie and from her place, took the metro and walked all over the city like I love to do... got to visit my friends from there and was able to come to a French burner body painting party too! A family from MCH, the Robbins, are currently living in Paris and I met up with them twice and got to see a new side of the Luxembourg gardens, the children's park!! amazing! Just as my appetite for French bread and cheese and crepes was starting to blossom, I left Paris and flew across the Mediteranean Sea to....
ISRAEL... my first time in the holy land. I met up with Shai, who I have been dating on the island for some time now and he picked me up in Tel Aviv and we started a one month fest of eating, visiting with his enormous family and visiting his friends. There was holiday after holiday in April there... starting with Passover, then memorial day and independence day... somewhere in all the down time and bbq's we managed to spend 5 days in the North of the country, visiting Haifa, CARMEL:), Rosh Hanikra, Sfat, the sea of Galilee and the pools of Bet Shan! Beautiful country!!
Jerusalem was where Shai grew up and where we spent most of our time, venturing into the tunnels to see the Western wall in more of it's entirety and wandering through the Shuck (market)... spending Shabbat in different synagogues and eating Shabbat dinner with his wonderful Sister, Michal... enjoying Kosher restaurants for the first time and seeing a JEWISH state... crazy...
Before returning to Thailand, we flew to London where we met up with Shai's good friend, Sharone and got to spend time with him and his lovely wife and children, walking in the parks, enjoying pic nics with other families and finally seeing the Tate Modern museum too.
Thoroughly ready to be back in one spot, we flew to Bangkok and spent a day shopping (Shai for the business and me for SEWING) since I carted my sewing machines through a few continents to bring them to Thailand! And now, we are settled back on the island, in the bungalow in front of the beach, pool hopping and yoga-ing a lot like usual!
I started at the end of February with a flight to Bangkok and then through Tokyo to California... a very long flight. During my stopover in Tokyo I met a bunch of US military who were on my flight from BKK and sat with them while they drank rum and coke and told them about meditation and yoga:)
I went directly to MCH from the SFO airport and really loved seeing the staff and of course the children again... so much that I came back the next week to assist at park play. Anuhea informed me of the changes that had happened, such as picking a new favorite teacher, her sister attending the school and her new watch:)
I visited Carmel and SF and Novato and Napa... a lot of driving within short distances, seeing childhood friends and newer friends, one meeting was done during my friend's weekly shopping trip to Rainbow market... very north american pace.
Next, I spent a lovely and quick paced week in Bisbee, AZ with my mom, meeting her many new friends, massaging some of them and popping over to Mexico for dinner one night!
The last week of my American travels was spent with the Gordons of the Pacific Northwest:) I stayed with Angel at his home, now converted into the Noesis Temple and was fortunate enough to celebrate the full moon with them. My dad joined me up there and we drove to Luke and Kate's home where I met Alia and played with Asher all weekend.
THEN.... for the European adventure, I started in Dublin with my former neighber from the island, Aisling. She showed me the seaside, introduced me to her friends, took me out in the city and offered me a few guinness beers to change things up a bit from my yogic diet:)
From there, I returned to Torino, where I used to live in 2004 and stayed with my former student and now, very good friend, Anna, who is now in Koh Pha Ngan visiting! I became friends with my former boyfriend, Alessandro. I went to Alba during the trip to see another old friend and got to spend a nice weekend in the Piemonte Hills and in precious Alba, which was having an international film festival.
Finally.... back to my beloved Paris! I stayed with Sophie and from her place, took the metro and walked all over the city like I love to do... got to visit my friends from there and was able to come to a French burner body painting party too! A family from MCH, the Robbins, are currently living in Paris and I met up with them twice and got to see a new side of the Luxembourg gardens, the children's park!! amazing! Just as my appetite for French bread and cheese and crepes was starting to blossom, I left Paris and flew across the Mediteranean Sea to....
ISRAEL... my first time in the holy land. I met up with Shai, who I have been dating on the island for some time now and he picked me up in Tel Aviv and we started a one month fest of eating, visiting with his enormous family and visiting his friends. There was holiday after holiday in April there... starting with Passover, then memorial day and independence day... somewhere in all the down time and bbq's we managed to spend 5 days in the North of the country, visiting Haifa, CARMEL:), Rosh Hanikra, Sfat, the sea of Galilee and the pools of Bet Shan! Beautiful country!!
Jerusalem was where Shai grew up and where we spent most of our time, venturing into the tunnels to see the Western wall in more of it's entirety and wandering through the Shuck (market)... spending Shabbat in different synagogues and eating Shabbat dinner with his wonderful Sister, Michal... enjoying Kosher restaurants for the first time and seeing a JEWISH state... crazy...
Before returning to Thailand, we flew to London where we met up with Shai's good friend, Sharone and got to spend time with him and his lovely wife and children, walking in the parks, enjoying pic nics with other families and finally seeing the Tate Modern museum too.
Thoroughly ready to be back in one spot, we flew to Bangkok and spent a day shopping (Shai for the business and me for SEWING) since I carted my sewing machines through a few continents to bring them to Thailand! And now, we are settled back on the island, in the bungalow in front of the beach, pool hopping and yoga-ing a lot like usual!
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