I have always been interested in cultures around the world – for as long as I can remember. I was fortunate as a child to have godparents who were Cree, and they shared some very special gifts with me that looking back, truly sparked my love for cultural histroy. Growing up, since it was during the days of handwritten letters and not emails, I was also very active with over 70 penpals from around the world, to whom I wrote regularly and received many little gifts and insights to their lives, and they mine. It is definitely this love that led me to live in a small West African village in my final year of high school, in order to learn the local languages, and experience the life there first hand. Also, because of the training that I did as an anthropologist ‘back in the day’ I was able to turn that passion into something more structured, in terms of the tools that I learned to explore and understand different and similar elements of cultures and societies.

I have a deep love and respect for all cultures and traditions. Looking at culture and how various elements, such as music, art, lifestyle, sociology, economy, history, language, religion, ritual, traditions etc. come together to influence, shape the individual living within that culture and vice versa to me is extremely fascinating. It makes me appreciate how the web moves and how everyone is connected in the broadest sense – and yet, each culture, each expression of existence, is uniquely beautiful.

:-)

There are many things that I am grateful for here on Gaia - the following are my pick of moments on Gaia that touched me in the past week, made me think, and take pause. I am grateful for those who are sharing positive energy from the heart and have found myself lost in the beauty of your words and choices to share. Thank you very much for enriching my life the way that you have.


This thread on OLMW started by Kath about what the word Love means to you – I found reading the various posts, thoughts and experiences on the topic of love to be very thought provoking and touching, and in reading those posts, felt encouraged to share some of my own thoughts and old rambling ideas on the subject.


Tai’s poem made me smile a lot


Zephyr’s beautiful poem touched my heart


Bhatta’s journal entry on Self and Body was a good refresher on the Chandogya Upanishad, and has encouraged me to return to study the text once again.

Meenakshi's poem Parting of Ways and accompanying photographs were stunning.

this morning.

True happiness, for me, is the result of my being able to act, exist from a place within myself that is peaceful, calm and compassionate. I don't look for things to "make" me happy - I am happy, and everything that I do - every word that I write, every interaction with another person, even when I am sad I am happy, because I am living out of my heart - I am living out of a very deep place like a well of happiness that has no bottom. 

the light right now is low, soft, and golden. outside my window night is stalking the empty branches of the trees and fading piles of snow. the room is empty except for me and is silent, while everyone else is sleeping. I was listening to music an hour ago, lost in lyrics while I was working. Now, the music is off, and I am listening to the silence. The space around me is comfortable, reflective, and allowing as I sit here contemplating sleep. 

walk in, love

into the night 

while the moon wanes

and paints the sky canvas

with silver fingertips

walk among the dew-kissed grass and roses

sleeping now with everything else

why walk here... 

why when the night draws itself out

and shadows have no sunlight

to dance with ?

why?

walk in, love

into the garden 

to listen to the world breathing

one breath 

one breath

we lose our words

in this night 

under the summer moon

ideas curl up in the burrows

with hopes and fears

and just for this night

under a canopy of stars

there is stillness

that touches the skin

walk in, love

no more searching

or wondering 

no more doubt 

no more fear

for life is in the details

the dew on a silver line

of spider's web

the cool night breeze

that makes us shiver

the snuffling dog at our feet

that licks our toes in greeting

the kiss that makes everything right

here, in the garden 

walk in, love.

~ Leigh-Anne Tyson

sometimes it's just good to listen. 

One of my goals for this new year was to catalogue and archive all of the writing that I have done over the years, particularly in the past two and a half years of being part of the Diving Deeper workshop. I have never done it in my life - kept track of anything that I have written, except to throw it into a file once I was done writing, and not look back at it.

Over the past month I have been chipping away at creating the archive, and while I am not done with the entire catologue of writinig - I did complete the DD portion of it, and I am utterly shocked at what I discovered.

During the course of being part of the workshop, I have learned that word count is often the first go-to measure for stories. The content of course has a lot of weight, but word count plays into it as well. Out of curiousity, I recorded in the archive the word count so that I could find out the total sum at the end of it all.

*drum roll please* Since November 2007 I have written 311, 123 words for the assignments, poetry and prose pieces that I have posted in DD. So, the average page has 275 words on it, which translates into about 1, 132 pages that I have written.

HOLY CARP!

that's a lot.

here's the kicker... I'm still writing! I have 5 more stories to write before I turn 40 to achieve my other goal - not to mention that all of this is still first draft and needs to be edited and polished. Seems like I have my work cut out for me for the next little while!

I need a cup of tea.