I can feel myself becoming more present than I have ever before, and I realize this was a big part of why I went on this journey. I feel like I am living in a dream...I am in awe as life unfolds before me...it is overwhelming and at the same time I feel completely calm...a change is happening that I am unable to describe in words.
I took the train from Rome to Ostuni Puglia. I learned that train doors do not open by themselves as the train began to depart from the station I was supposed to get off of, lolol! Man I was freaking out! I ran through that train so fast. Fortunately, my wwoof host Mary had a cell phone. I was able to get off at the next stop and return within an hour.
Mary pulls up and the first thing I notice, besides her bright blue eyes and warm smile, was Raam Daas playing and an "Om Namah Shivaya" sticker on the dashboard! And that was just the beginning. I am living in an area that is known for its Trulli houses...the home I am staying is one such house and the room I sleep in is the Trulli...pyramid power!!! I realize that this is probably the nicest place I will stay while on my trip, lol. It is not so much a farm, but I have been helping harvest almonds (which are amazing! seriously everything tastes different here) and chestnuts. The primary crop they have is olives, though I will not be here for the olive harvest, since I have already committed to helping a farm in Sicily.
What has been the most amazing is that I have been led directly into my purpose and also the Vedic tradition. How incredible is it that I end up staying with a woman who teaches yoga and has been studying the Veda for most of her life. I landed here two days before the sacred period of The Nine Days of Mother Divine, and it just so happens that my host lives near a Babaji Ashram where they are performing Yagyas (spiritual ceremonies)for the duration! (a link with some info: http://www.akhandjyoti.org/?Akhand-Jyoti/2003/Sept-Oct/AshwinNavaratri/ ) When we left the ashram this morning we went to visit some friends to bring them prasad (blessed food) and I was introduced to a man "who had lived in America." I asked him where he lived, and when he said Nebraska, I was like "What?" I told him I lived in Iowa this past year and he said, "In Fairfield?" This is when I say...HOLY SHIT!!!!...inner dialogue of course, lol, but seriously...pretty incredible.
So for right now I am planning to stay until the end of the nine days...but, you never know. For right now, I am just being, and loving...and this feels like the right thing to do.
I must go for now. I was given some time to roam the Old City in Ostuni and have spent too much time on the net, lol. I am going to get a book and notebook to work on learning Italian. My hosts are being very gracious in helping me to learn so I have decided to get serious about it.
I love everyone immensely...keep holding my highest good in your consciousness...I can FEEL your love and prayers...just look at the experiences I am having!
love, peace and blessings
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Life is Beautiful
I don't have much time to write but wanted to let everyone know that all is well and I am adjusting to my travel life very nicely :) I have met some really wonderful people already, one who I am sure I will keep in touch with for life. I am thinking I might try to go to Germany to visit her when I go to Northern Italy.
For now though I am being drawn to the south. I leave Rome early to head to the region of Puglia to work on a small farm. I was supposed to go from there to Catania Sicily to help make herbal products on another farm but just found out that is not an option. Either way I will be leaving for Catania in late October.
I just have to say, and will write more about this later, that I am reading A New Earth by Eckert Tolle. This book is just about all that I spent the last year studying and it is pure bliss reading it. I highly recommend that you all check it out. This man is amazing!
Someone has to get on the net and so I must go...
Love, peace, and blessings.
ps. did i mention that everything here is beautiful? especially the men!lolol...
For now though I am being drawn to the south. I leave Rome early to head to the region of Puglia to work on a small farm. I was supposed to go from there to Catania Sicily to help make herbal products on another farm but just found out that is not an option. Either way I will be leaving for Catania in late October.
I just have to say, and will write more about this later, that I am reading A New Earth by Eckert Tolle. This book is just about all that I spent the last year studying and it is pure bliss reading it. I highly recommend that you all check it out. This man is amazing!
Someone has to get on the net and so I must go...
Love, peace, and blessings.
ps. did i mention that everything here is beautiful? especially the men!lolol...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
When in Rome....
Well, I made it...I am in the old country. I had a bit of a rough start, including walking the streets with a piece of pizza in one hand and my dads hanky in the other, periodically sobbing, lol...ok, not sobbing, but that sounds so much funnier. I met a group of American girls that night and they invited me to see the Vatican with them the next day, which was like a divine intervention :)
So all day at the Vatican...what an amazing place. I even got blessed by the Papa! The pope comes out on Wednesdays at 11:00...you are supposed to get a ticket but we didn't have one. Apparently that was not an issue as the guards just let us right in. Then we went to the Vatican museums which was amazing and so filled with beautiful art. By four I was getting pretty tired and the girls I was with were still going strong. So I told them to go ahead and I would try to find them. I wanted to stay and meditate in the Sistine Chapel. This was a sweet moment for me. Afterwards I was ready for some more and went to St. Peters Basilica (after getting the first of many gelatos in Italy :)
A bit of what I wrote in my journal at St. Peters:
Life is a prayer...where have I heard those words before?
As I sit in this magnificent church, I watch people kneel down and pray - they sit next to me and bless themselves - look at Jesus, the embodiment of light, of love. They kneel and pray and ask for the grace that has already been bestowed on us. Grace that is all around if we would just open our eyes and see.
There is a lot of silence here.
Grace...I feel steeped in Grace...I give thanks.
(For my family - I thought of grandma, who, even when she could barely walk, would kneel upon entering a church. I think of how I have been shown devotion to God my whole life and how blessed I am for this. I thank my family for this, but especially my mother, who allowed me to love God the way it was most comfortable for me, thank you mom, you are amazing and I love you.)
When I got back to the hostel I received an email from my TM teacher in response to my struggles the previous day. It simply had one quote: If the doors to perception were cleansed,everything would appear to us as it is, infinite. - William Blake
Thank you Linda.
I would be lying to say that I dont feel like I am on a roller coaster ride. Right now I am struggling with the feeling of being out of my path, my dharma, for those of you who understand that concept. I keep thinking about the work I feel like I should be doing. Perhaps it will get better when I start working on a farm, which will hopefully be starting on Saturday or Sunday. I need to get the hell out of Rome before I have no money left, lol.
I better get rolling. Going to see the Colosseum today, I figure I will get in as much as I can while I am here. I am meeting up with my friends Kirk and his new bride Jena tomorrow and I am really looking forward to that. I hope all is well with everyone...send me some love when you get the chance...thanks to everyone who already has.
love, peace, and blessings.
So all day at the Vatican...what an amazing place. I even got blessed by the Papa! The pope comes out on Wednesdays at 11:00...you are supposed to get a ticket but we didn't have one. Apparently that was not an issue as the guards just let us right in. Then we went to the Vatican museums which was amazing and so filled with beautiful art. By four I was getting pretty tired and the girls I was with were still going strong. So I told them to go ahead and I would try to find them. I wanted to stay and meditate in the Sistine Chapel. This was a sweet moment for me. Afterwards I was ready for some more and went to St. Peters Basilica (after getting the first of many gelatos in Italy :)
A bit of what I wrote in my journal at St. Peters:
Life is a prayer...where have I heard those words before?
As I sit in this magnificent church, I watch people kneel down and pray - they sit next to me and bless themselves - look at Jesus, the embodiment of light, of love. They kneel and pray and ask for the grace that has already been bestowed on us. Grace that is all around if we would just open our eyes and see.
There is a lot of silence here.
Grace...I feel steeped in Grace...I give thanks.
(For my family - I thought of grandma, who, even when she could barely walk, would kneel upon entering a church. I think of how I have been shown devotion to God my whole life and how blessed I am for this. I thank my family for this, but especially my mother, who allowed me to love God the way it was most comfortable for me, thank you mom, you are amazing and I love you.)
When I got back to the hostel I received an email from my TM teacher in response to my struggles the previous day. It simply had one quote: If the doors to perception were cleansed,everything would appear to us as it is, infinite. - William Blake
Thank you Linda.
I would be lying to say that I dont feel like I am on a roller coaster ride. Right now I am struggling with the feeling of being out of my path, my dharma, for those of you who understand that concept. I keep thinking about the work I feel like I should be doing. Perhaps it will get better when I start working on a farm, which will hopefully be starting on Saturday or Sunday. I need to get the hell out of Rome before I have no money left, lol.
I better get rolling. Going to see the Colosseum today, I figure I will get in as much as I can while I am here. I am meeting up with my friends Kirk and his new bride Jena tomorrow and I am really looking forward to that. I hope all is well with everyone...send me some love when you get the chance...thanks to everyone who already has.
love, peace, and blessings.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Ask the right questions…
I am on my way back to VA from a whirlwind week in Cali. I spent the first three days visiting schools and seeing some of the bay area. Jimena and Dave were quite the tour guides and I am so thankful to them for their time and patience. Then Jimena and I took a road trip to Lake Tahoe and stayed one night with my friend Eric. It was sooooo beautiful there and was just what we needed. I think that it is the purest water I have ever swam in…it really felt amazing! I left feeling so settled which was a contrast to how overwhelmed I felt after all the school visits. We returned to Oakland, where I had been blessed to stay with Jimena and her boyfriend Mark throughout my time in the Bay. They took me out for my last night and I was finally able to meet Jimena’s friend Liz, who I have been hearing about for eight years! It was a great week and, as always, good to be with one of my true soul mates ☺.
I am going home with some answers and more questions, which, right now, I am okay with. I realized I could have planned this trip much better in terms of how I explored the schools. But ultimately what I trust is the feeling place – how each school made me feel intuitively. The truth is, my best experience was at Southwestern. But after this week I have realized that while I definitely want to engage in therapeutic relationships with individuals, I am also passionate about research and teaching. This has led me to seriously contemplate pursuing a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. In any case, I have a lot to think about, and will have to speak with the admissions counselors again in order to figure out the logistics. I do feel excited and encouraged to move forward and reach for my highest goal. And I trust that if this is the direction I need to go in, my path will lead me there.
When speaking to my friend Stephen yesterday he was filling me in on a visit by Rev. Michael Beckwith at MUM. He told me Rev. Beckwith talked about asking the right questions, about how when we do this, when we open up ourselves, the Universe opens up to us and reveals the answers in such a clear and simple way…
I believe that we have access to all the answers because on a fundamental level we are not only a part of the whole of life, but that the entity of the whole of life is contained within each of us. I am reminded of the scripture Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
We just have to ask.
Love, Peace, & Blessings
I am going home with some answers and more questions, which, right now, I am okay with. I realized I could have planned this trip much better in terms of how I explored the schools. But ultimately what I trust is the feeling place – how each school made me feel intuitively. The truth is, my best experience was at Southwestern. But after this week I have realized that while I definitely want to engage in therapeutic relationships with individuals, I am also passionate about research and teaching. This has led me to seriously contemplate pursuing a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. In any case, I have a lot to think about, and will have to speak with the admissions counselors again in order to figure out the logistics. I do feel excited and encouraged to move forward and reach for my highest goal. And I trust that if this is the direction I need to go in, my path will lead me there.
When speaking to my friend Stephen yesterday he was filling me in on a visit by Rev. Michael Beckwith at MUM. He told me Rev. Beckwith talked about asking the right questions, about how when we do this, when we open up ourselves, the Universe opens up to us and reveals the answers in such a clear and simple way…
I believe that we have access to all the answers because on a fundamental level we are not only a part of the whole of life, but that the entity of the whole of life is contained within each of us. I am reminded of the scripture Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
We just have to ask.
Love, Peace, & Blessings
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
