Monday, 15 March 2010
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Link: Walking Away with an Open Heart
I was on my lunch break in the city, enjoying a salad at an outdoor cafe, when a disheveled homeless lady came walking towards me. She was yelling and begging everyone who walked past her for spare change and she looked like a mess. My instant reaction was fear... to close off and hope she didn't come near me, but she did. I was on the phone and when she came over yelling, I said, "I'm on the phone," in the nicest way I could, assuring myself what she needed was a lesson in manners. After all, that is rude to interrupt someone and I have very little money as it is, if she only knew and on and on... She walked away, mumbling, "I'm annoying you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll leave." And she turned the corner.
Normally, I would feel relieved or satisfied, but something in me couldn't rest. Without another thought, I looked in my wallet for the spare change I had. It was just dimes and pennies, but I found a few and was going to give them to her. Suddenly, something amazing happened. I started searching through my entire purse, the bottom, the pockets, everything - for ALL of the change I could possibly find to give, and something in me cracked. It felt like my heart broke and poured open and the restlessness abruptly stopped.
Read the full post here... http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=11242
Normally, I would feel relieved or satisfied, but something in me couldn't rest. Without another thought, I looked in my wallet for the spare change I had. It was just dimes and pennies, but I found a few and was going to give them to her. Suddenly, something amazing happened. I started searching through my entire purse, the bottom, the pockets, everything - for ALL of the change I could possibly find to give, and something in me cracked. It felt like my heart broke and poured open and the restlessness abruptly stopped.
Read the full post here... http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=11242
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Hempi
Hempi is hot! So hot! Barely a breeze most of the time. Multiple power cuts each day/night so the fans often stop too. Surrounded by piles and piles of rocks, it was actually used as the set for The Flintstones movie. Steeped in history with many ancient buildings and temples all around dating back to the 13th century. A short scooter ride away is a beautiful reservoir where we can swim and get a break from the heat. Paddy fields all around and oxen pulling carts down the street. The children seem as happy as anywhere but ask for money at every meeting.
Back on the train to Goa now for the first leg of my journey home to Dubai. No luck uploading in Hempi so these posts will be a little delayed. After a week or so without issue I now have some stomach problems. It wouldn't be India without it!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Back on the train to Goa now for the first leg of my journey home to Dubai. No luck uploading in Hempi so these posts will be a little delayed. After a week or so without issue I now have some stomach problems. It wouldn't be India without it!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Thursday, 4 March 2010
The Beach Life
Waking up each day when the temperature gets too hot to sleep anymore. Freshen up in the ensuite, meditation to waken the mind, then step out of my shack onto a beautiful golden beach.
Puppies are living right outside my door. They stay near their mother, sleeping in the hot hours, and playing when it's cooler. There are many dogs here - street dogs and beach dogs - as well as cats, pigs, cows, and chickens all roaming free. Cows even make good use of the roads to get about and only seem to cause accidents occassionally.
A few feet from my shack is Sanjay's, where you can get anything you want from porridge with banana to clean laundry or a taxi to the airport. You could easily chill out at Sanjay's all day, and some people do, but there is a beautiful blue sea gently lapping a long golden beach that stretches all the way into town and then beyond. The sea feels warmer than the air but is welcomely refreshing to break the midday sun. Every hundred meters or so down the beach another rest-o-bar mellows in the sunshine.
There are kitesurfers on this beach. The wind is perfect - consistent and gently increasing through the afternoon. I have to come back with my kite equipment. It is so perfect for kiting!
Arambol town is 15 minutes walk along the beach or 5 minutes on scooter through the back streets. The back steets are little more than dirt tracks. Everyones houses seem to mix together, intermingled with the occassional field or shop. Scooters are the most popular means to travel. Use of the horn is vital at all and any opportunity. Great care and attention also highly advised - these people don't hesitate to take your life into their hands. With the scooters we were able to travel up and down the coast a little and see the beautiful scenery that seems to be everywhere here.
After a week in Arambol, Goa, we are now off to Hempi to see some more wonders and apparently stunning scenery. 8 hours on the train, sleeper class - actually suprisingly comfy :-)
Puppies are living right outside my door. They stay near their mother, sleeping in the hot hours, and playing when it's cooler. There are many dogs here - street dogs and beach dogs - as well as cats, pigs, cows, and chickens all roaming free. Cows even make good use of the roads to get about and only seem to cause accidents occassionally.
A few feet from my shack is Sanjay's, where you can get anything you want from porridge with banana to clean laundry or a taxi to the airport. You could easily chill out at Sanjay's all day, and some people do, but there is a beautiful blue sea gently lapping a long golden beach that stretches all the way into town and then beyond. The sea feels warmer than the air but is welcomely refreshing to break the midday sun. Every hundred meters or so down the beach another rest-o-bar mellows in the sunshine.
There are kitesurfers on this beach. The wind is perfect - consistent and gently increasing through the afternoon. I have to come back with my kite equipment. It is so perfect for kiting!
Arambol town is 15 minutes walk along the beach or 5 minutes on scooter through the back streets. The back steets are little more than dirt tracks. Everyones houses seem to mix together, intermingled with the occassional field or shop. Scooters are the most popular means to travel. Use of the horn is vital at all and any opportunity. Great care and attention also highly advised - these people don't hesitate to take your life into their hands. With the scooters we were able to travel up and down the coast a little and see the beautiful scenery that seems to be everywhere here.
After a week in Arambol, Goa, we are now off to Hempi to see some more wonders and apparently stunning scenery. 8 hours on the train, sleeper class - actually suprisingly comfy :-)
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Goa!
Wow! Goa is so much bigger than I thought. My impression was of a town but this is a state. I am staying in Arombol, about 1.5 hours from the airport. It's more of a touristy area but not far from a more rural India either, as you will see from some of the photos. The scenery is beautiful. The weather is very hot and humid. Cools down a bit in the evening but the midday hours are very swetty! I have been staying with Nick in his little house but tonight should be moving to a beach hut, to get some of my own space. I have a scooter so have been exploring a bit of the local area. I bought a shirt today for 150 Rupees which is about 2 pounds. I think I probably over paid as well - chances are!
Nick has a lot of friends all about this area, so he has been steadily introducing me to them all. Quite overwhelming as he seems to know everybody! Everyone is very friendly, especially the locals :-)
Nick has a lot of friends all about this area, so he has been steadily introducing me to them all. Quite overwhelming as he seems to know everybody! Everyone is very friendly, especially the locals :-)
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Time for change
Hi Blog Followers :-)
This is the first time that I have posted my own words onto this blog! I am planning some changes in content going forward, and I wanted to let you know what's happening. You may have read my three objectives listed on the right side panel of the main blog site. So far my posts have been content that I have found inspiring on the web, that is associated with my objectives. This may be interesting but I feel that I want to get much more involved in these objectives rather than just giving them lip service. So my intention long term, is to change my life from an office job to one much more aligned to these objectives everyday! I want to live them everyday, and I want to demonstrate that experience through this blog! What this will mean and what the experience will look like is basically an experiment, so watch this space!
I have been testing a photostream over the last week, and also bought an iPhone. Apologies if you have noticed a couple of blank or test posts, or other issues - I have been testing and setting up the iPhone so that I can post to the blog, post to twitter, and post photos, from anywhere, at anytime (provided I have some kind of network signal - 3G, GPRS, or WiFi). On the main blog page now you will also see my twitter feed and my photostream feed - please subscribe to both or just view the blog page as you wish. Again, how you join me in this experience is also an experiment. Technology and social networking are making this possible and are changing all the time - I intend to make the best use of these as I can!
To start this experiment, I am going to India for a fortnight vacation. I will use the iPhone to post blog, twitter, and photo content onto this site (and to the subscription and RSS links). Let's see how well it works!
I will also continue to post web content that I find inspiring alongside my own posts. I hope you find it interesting and I will always love to read your thoughts and comments.
Take good care.
“The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” Charles DuBois
This is the first time that I have posted my own words onto this blog! I am planning some changes in content going forward, and I wanted to let you know what's happening. You may have read my three objectives listed on the right side panel of the main blog site. So far my posts have been content that I have found inspiring on the web, that is associated with my objectives. This may be interesting but I feel that I want to get much more involved in these objectives rather than just giving them lip service. So my intention long term, is to change my life from an office job to one much more aligned to these objectives everyday! I want to live them everyday, and I want to demonstrate that experience through this blog! What this will mean and what the experience will look like is basically an experiment, so watch this space!
I have been testing a photostream over the last week, and also bought an iPhone. Apologies if you have noticed a couple of blank or test posts, or other issues - I have been testing and setting up the iPhone so that I can post to the blog, post to twitter, and post photos, from anywhere, at anytime (provided I have some kind of network signal - 3G, GPRS, or WiFi). On the main blog page now you will also see my twitter feed and my photostream feed - please subscribe to both or just view the blog page as you wish. Again, how you join me in this experience is also an experiment. Technology and social networking are making this possible and are changing all the time - I intend to make the best use of these as I can!
To start this experiment, I am going to India for a fortnight vacation. I will use the iPhone to post blog, twitter, and photo content onto this site (and to the subscription and RSS links). Let's see how well it works!
I will also continue to post web content that I find inspiring alongside my own posts. I hope you find it interesting and I will always love to read your thoughts and comments.
Take good care.
“The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” Charles DuBois
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Link: Three Homeless Men - A Kindness Story
"And talking about beautiful...yesterday I was witness to such a heartwarming random act of kindness. It will forever be imprinted in my mind. I had to run downtown to help Bonnie out for a few hours (it was not part of my original plans for Monday). On my bus ride back to the train station, we were in gridlock traffic right by the opera house. As I stare out my window a handsome young man (25ish to 30ish) walks out of the side door of the Opera House. It's cold and windy outside. He has on a heavy army-issued jacket and a scarf wrapped around his neck.
Read the full post here...
http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=334
Read the full post here...
http://www.helpothers.org/story.php?sid=334
Friday, 12 February 2010
Link: Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable
Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune after realising his riches were making him unhappy.
Read the full story here... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/7190750/Millionaire-gives-away-fortune-which-made-him-miserable.html
Read the full story here... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/7190750/Millionaire-gives-away-fortune-which-made-him-miserable.html
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Link: Love is for giving
What is love and where is it found? We search for love and try to get love, and yet it seems like we never get enough. Even when we have found love, it can slip away as time passes. What if there is a source of love that never fades and is always available? What if love is as near and easy as breathing? What if we have been “looking for love in all the wrong places” instead of actually lacking love?
Love is both simpler and more mysterious and subtle than we have imagined it to be. Love is very simply the spacious, open attention of our awareness. Awareness itself is the gentlest, kindest, and most intimate force in the world. It touches things without impinging on them. It holds all of our experience but doesn’t hold it down or hold it back. And yet, inherent in awareness is a pull to connect and even merge with the object of our awareness.
It is this seemingly contradictory nature of awareness—the completely open and allowing nature of awareness and its passionate pull to blend with and even become the object of its attention—that gives life its spirituality, depth and sweetness. There is nothing more satisfying than this delicious dilemma of being both apart from and at the same time connected to something we see, hear, or feel.
Awareness is the beginning of all separation. Prior to awareness, there is just “oneness” or “is-ness,” with nothing separate from the oneness that would be able to experience it. With the birth of awareness, there is the subtle distinction of two things: that which is aware and the object of awareness. And yet, those two are still connected by this mysterious force we are calling awareness, or love.
Read the full article here... http://endless-satsang.com/lovearticle.htm
Love is both simpler and more mysterious and subtle than we have imagined it to be. Love is very simply the spacious, open attention of our awareness. Awareness itself is the gentlest, kindest, and most intimate force in the world. It touches things without impinging on them. It holds all of our experience but doesn’t hold it down or hold it back. And yet, inherent in awareness is a pull to connect and even merge with the object of our awareness.
It is this seemingly contradictory nature of awareness—the completely open and allowing nature of awareness and its passionate pull to blend with and even become the object of its attention—that gives life its spirituality, depth and sweetness. There is nothing more satisfying than this delicious dilemma of being both apart from and at the same time connected to something we see, hear, or feel.
Awareness is the beginning of all separation. Prior to awareness, there is just “oneness” or “is-ness,” with nothing separate from the oneness that would be able to experience it. With the birth of awareness, there is the subtle distinction of two things: that which is aware and the object of awareness. And yet, those two are still connected by this mysterious force we are calling awareness, or love.
Read the full article here... http://endless-satsang.com/lovearticle.htm
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