First day

We began our training today. It was absolutely incredible, no words can capture the emotions and thoughts swirling through my heart and soul. 

Lily, our guru (teacher), is phenomenal.  She's kind, warm, open and extremely well trained. In just our opening her philosophy was clear; everyone is in a different place and wherever we are is where we should be.

This training is designed to move each of us forward from wherever we are. The goal being eventual self realization; finding our own truth and thereby finding all truth (decades away). The next month will be devoted to understanding ourselves better, which will then better allow us to share this incredible experience with others. Through yoga we find a meditation practice that allows is to really look within. We have another incredible guru, Ramananda, to help further our pranayama and meditation practice.

I believe this is going to be the most impactful month of my life.

Today's MOL: sitting in the yoga shala, waiting to begin,  breeze floating through, wind chimes and birds singing,  butterflies in my stomach running a marathon. ..and Lily comes over,  smiles, asks my name and gives me a warm hug. Instant peace.

Choices

I really am in paradise. This is the most beautiful place in the world. People are friendly. The food is delightful.  Sweet cats and dogs roam freely. But the night is a challenge.

Last night I came home to discover a foot long gecko beside my toilet. I was startled, and a bit freaked out. Sounds of other creatures filled the air, and my new roommate showed no sign of departure. Needless to say, sleep did not come easily. Doubt flooded over me , as I wondered if this was a good choice; the right choice. I spent the night hovering in and out of consciousness, trying to allow the jungle music to feed a sense of ease, rather than anxiety. 

As the sun began to rise, I pulled my mosquito net up, glanced around for any visitors and climbed out of bed. My heart and mind felt at ease, my internal light within lifted by the external light. I opened my door and stared out at the vast ocean before me and with the ripples of the ocean the second thoughts that had flooded my mind hours before washed away, melting into the sea. Purified by the salty blanket before me, I am ready for another day of bliss, and challenge.

Even life-long dreams in paradise come with their share of difficulties. This is part of what makes our experiences worth while, and beneficial in the present moment and beyond. I know the nights will continue to frighten, intimidate, and challenge me, some more full of jungle visitors than others, but each morning is a new moment.  Time to be grateful for the struggle and the conquest-however small.

The breeze is gentle, the water crystal, clouds wispy, cicadas roaring, the sun shining; this is where I am. This is where I'm meant to be.

Today's MOL: the feeling beyond acceptance to contentment, as I feel confident in the struggles and joys in this very moment.

Picture: Top: my gecko friend and the morning rejuvenation. Bottom: exploring paradise and my new hammock for my home!

Bangkok

Bangkok was a bit of an odd city. It seemed pretty dirty, aggressive and difficult for the first part of our day. People were constantly yelling at us about taking a taxi or where we were going. They were very pushy and annoying; a stark contrast from the people in Chiang Mai! We got more frustrated when we spent over 20 minutes walking around the Grand Palace looking for the entrance, but we finally made it!

The day started to turn around:) The buildings in the palace were absolutely beautiful.  The architecture was extremely detailed and varied. It was pretty cloudy,  and I think that muted the photos,  but the buildings really were magnificent.

We then walked down to the river and had a long, leisurely dinner along the water, overlooking Wat Arun. We stayed until dusk and it was just gorgeous to see at night. The started to rain pretty heavily so we made our way to the water boat bus! The boat bus was pretty wild and fun to try. When we got off we walked down Khoa san Road, a big backpacker tourist hub. The market scene from earlier in the day transformed into a club-like feeling party street. It was a bit overwhelming,  but we found The Fabulous Dessert Cafe behind the caos and enjoyed so yummy treats there :) Then it was time to grt back to our room and prepare for bed....4:40 wake up call for our exciting journey to the island!!!

Today's moment of life:  Sitting on the river, startwat Wat Arun, Thai iced tea in hand, sun hiding behind the clouds and a gentle breeze whisping by.

Home!

After a train, taxi, plane, shuttle bus,  ferry and water taxi we're on Ko Phangan!!! It is absolutely incredible.  Crystal blue waters, private bungalows,  great people and yummy food. I think I've found heaven.

Today's moment of life: Sunshine flooding, standing in my bungalow, looking through the door at the endless ocean, surrounded by lush jungle (but far enough to keep away most of the creapy crawlies!).

Life is beautiful.

Doi Suthep

On our last day in Chiang Mai Aly and I met up with Meghan, another yogi from our program, and headed to the temple in the mountains! (After another incredible meal at the veggie restaurant,  Imm Aim :) I have kots more photos, but for the sake of time, this is all I'm showing!

Also shown here are Chiang Mai's most common modes of transportation,  the red trucks (songteaws) and tuk tuks. So fun!

Moment of life: looking out from the temple over the immense city, speckled with jingle leaves and swooshy clouds, a rainbow appeared. Beautiful.

Elephants!!!!

Where to begin with this perfect little gem of a day?? I've decided to try and do a "today's moment of life"  each day, as that may be more manageable once I get into my program,  and perhaps even a tad inspiring? I will describe one specific moment where I felt completely present and full of gratitude. (I'm inspired here by Jon Stewart's moment of Zen).

Today's moment of life: After spending my initial moments timidly petting Nam Puan, a beautiful,  blind 68 year old rescue elephant, she poked me from behind, seeking a banana. Her wet trunk moistened my back and tickled my spine as it arched in fear and excitement.  She nudged further and while giggling,  I leaned in closely,  placed a banana in her mouth, and put my arms around the magnificent creature so playfully accepting of me. Nothing else in the world existed in that moment.  It was perfect.  And then it passed. On to the next!

Aly and I were both rather nervous at first. We ended up really paling up with our three pachyderms though. We went to Elephant Nature Park, one of the few ethical sanctuaries around (no riding! ), and participated in an intimate day with Nam Puan, Tilly and Ba'nyen. There were 6 of us tourists (4 from Chicago! ) and three elephants.  We fed them, walked at their leisurely pace wherever they wanted to go, crossed a river while they cooled down and just had lots of elephant loving time. The park was spectacular- completely gorgeous and all about letting the elephants be free. Through positive reinforcement ENP has rescued 34 elephants,  never using chains or a whip or stick to force them into anything. The elephants roam free, eat alllllll the time and take care of one another. It's the perfect example of pure beauty.

There was a baby elephant (9 months) and it was amazing to see the herd gather round to protect her when she saw us coming and got spooked (pictured!). You couldn't even tell she was there within one minute of her running out of the water. We also saw her bathe and playfully step on top of her aunt while doing so. Adorable.

Tilly and Nam Puan were buds. Nam was blind and Tilly always looked out for her. When she went down to bathe, she made sure to let Nam know. Her sweet melody can travel up to a mile, but that wasn't necessary in this case. The sounds were incredible,  unlike anything I'd imagine coming from an elephant.  Ba was a bit more free spirited. She was FAST and danced to the beat of her own drum. So obviously,  I loved her :)

There was also an unexpected white water rafting element of the day, totally fun, but doesn't really compare to the beauties we spent the day loving. I miss them already!

*it may not seem like it, but I was extremely selective in the photos I used! After a short time at the park, I accepted that capturing the full beauty of any moment was simply not going to happen; so I settled for my best attempts.

Wat Chedi Luang and Chiang Mai markets

On Sunday, Aly and I started the day at another adorable cafe (they're everywhere!) near Katie's lovely apartment. The coffee was really delightful, as was the banana chocolate muffin. We then headed toward the city, riding a Songteaw (red truck) taxi. We got dropped at a different place than we meant, so we took advantage of the added opportunity to see the sights on foot.

We arrived at our intended destination,  the Warorot river market, and began exploring! The place was full of all sorts of goods: fruit, coffee, meats, bugs, sea food, clothing,  sun glasses (picked up a pair!),  jewelry,  flowers, bags, candles....and many things I'm forgetting.  The market was in the street and inside multi-level buildings as well. It was huuuuge. (Last picture collage shows this market)

We then walked back towards the old city and grabbed a large, delicious lunch at Da Da cafe, another local, organic,  vegetarian friendly gem. After stuffing ourselves silly with fried brown rice with veggies,  pad thai and papaya salad, we headed to the Chedi Luang temple. Along our adventures we saw that adorable cat sleeping in a bookstore.

We stopped to get a fresh coconut,  then headed to the woman's prison for another incredible thai massage. There's a program in Chiang Mai that trains female prisoners in Thai massage, and you can go to the prison to get. They were booked for the day, but another place around the corner collaborated with the prison to have ex- prisoners give messages. It was the largest massage place I've been to yet and so perfectly run. It's been quite hot here so the AC was truly fabulous.

After our Thai massages it was time for the Sunday Walking Street market, which was AMAZING! ! One of main roads is completely closed to ask vehicles.  The market kicked off with the national anthem and there were a number of unintimidating military men around. We began by tasting fried potato and cheese balls and a fresh fruit smoothie (mango for me and pineapple for Aly). We meandered though the stalls for a couple of hours, marveling at all the little trinkets, clothes, art work, bags, jewelry, instruments, and food galore!

All in all, Aly and I had a fantastic day. Next up: Elephant Nature Park!

*A note about comments:I love them! Thank you Jon/Nicole/Ashlyn, Andy,  Ted and Jamie! I don't know how to reply, but I am seeing them :)

Thai Farm Cooking class

Per another wonderful Katie recommendation, I did a Thai cooking class at an organic farm outside Chiang Mai. We started the day getting picked up by a red truck and taken to a market to get some ingredients (rice and sauces, veggies were from the farm!). Then we headed to the farm!

It was beautiful.  We took a little tour sampling all sorts of things including galangal (a ginger root), lemongrass, sweet basil, pea eggplant (eggplant that looks like a pea!) , green mango...and so much more!

Then we prepared our first dish. I made cocunut milk soup and it was amazing. Next up was our curry, we could choose: red, green, or yellow.  I made green, but only used 4 green chilies ("tourist hot" according to our teacher, Thai hot uses 10!). Next up was a stir fry to balance the curry. I made tofu with cashews. It. Was. Amazing. We also had Som Tam (papaya salad), which was super refreshing. 

We took a little break before making our last two dishes. Dessert! I had mango sticky rice. I'm very happy to say it had the fewest ingredients and should be very simple to recreate back home :)

Lastly,  I made pad thai, to go! There was no chance I'd eat anymore.

Next up: Aly from my program arrived! It's so nice to have a friend.  I'll share more on that soon!

Wat Santidham and new friends

I made a couple friends while zip lining and they turned out to be staying just down the road from me! We met up and went to Wat Santidham. Ya Ya, pictured with me in front of the temple, is from Thailand and was providing lots of great information.

What I found most interesting (and easiest to remember) was what she shared about female monks, called nuns. One of the pictures shows a female nun, gender only visible by the color of the robe (white instead of orange). Ya Ya said monks have something like 132 rules/steps to follow and nuns have 411! She said it's very rare for woman to become nuns because they believe they're less focused,  I thought perhaps the rules had something to do with it.

The monk pictured is the most realistic statue I have ever seen. When we got inside the temple museum, I thought he was real! His statue is there to honor his devotion.

After the temple we took the red truck taxis (I'll give a picture in a  later post) to one of the gates. We had amazing vegetarian food and then went to get dessert. YUM.

Rock Climbing and Zip Lining!

Well I spent Wednesday at Crazy Horse Butteess rock climbing and repelling (70 meters down!), and Thursday zip lining my way through the rain forest (which supposedly isn't too disruptive to the things that actually belong there...).

Rock climbing was wonderful. We had two fantastic guides: Gee and Ooan. We did a few different routes (5.9s). It felt great to be back on the rock and the limestone left me far less wounded than New Mexico's sandstone ever did! I definitely need to start rock climbing in the States again! The repel down was incredible as we plunged into a gigantic cave. The walls looked almost frozen over, though they were limestone too, once fully submerged in water now little water or sunlight touch down.

Zip lining was SO FUN. I can't even believe how great it was. Our guide,  Clash, was enthusiastic,  silly, informative and just totally fun. The longest line we did was 800 meters, though it literally flew by! We repelled down 80 meters (shown in one of the photos). One of the lines was superman style-clipped to our back! It felt like just jumping into the air (chicken jump through back for my GBN high adventure PE class buddies). The rain forest,  not surprisingly,  was just gorgeous.  I think that may have been the best part: the never ending beauty. Completely lush, crisp feeling and full of vibrancy and life. We had the opportunity to see some gibbons, I was hoping to see some birds, but they stayed out of sight (provided lovely music though! ).

After zip lining we had lunch at this beautiful restaurant in the jungle.  The food was, of course,  delicious.  After lunch we went to a waterfall and hiked up to the top. The drive back to the city was beautiful too. We passed every type of home/structure: straw huts, resorts,  wooden homes, a couple temples, a junk yard, a cemetery,  a couple markets (they reminded me of New Mexico,  much of the hour drive did actually, many loved, worn homes with a couple fancy new buildings scattered here and there).

Wounderful, wonderful,  wonderful!

Homestay in Mae Kampong

In between Rock Climbing at Crazy Horse and zip lining in the rainforest,  I did a homestay in a little rain-foresty village.  The food was fantastic,  views beautiful and the company kind. My host had a 13 year old daughter named Wan. She and I had a blast trying to talk about things we love, her favorite being nature :) The people were all incredibly friendly,  and I regretted more than ever not making an effort to learn some basic Thai before my trip began. Wan taught me to say hello and thank you, which are actually pretty sufficient in many situations!  There were peacocks and roosters galore in the town, as well as many stray dogs and a pet cat at my home! I had my own room that was very confortable. I would have liked to interact with the family more, but it was definitely a wonderful experience. 

My. Favorite. Cafe. EVER

The Birds Nest Cafe sounds like something I would absolutely love, and it didn't disappoint.  While I waited for my curry dish and cinnamon cocunut smoothie,  I read in a hammock. Then I jumped to one of their cushy floor nooks to eat and continue my book. If that doesn't sound like heaven to you, we probably aren't friends ;)

Let in the light: The perfect beginning

Disclaimer: blog updates are coming from my cell phone and with limited internet use, don't judge my style :)

I left my Chicago apartment at 6:30 p.m. On Sunday. I arrived at my friend's apartment in Chiang Mai at 4:30 p.m. Thai time on Tuesday.  (4:30 a.m. Chicago time). While Katie isn't here, I'm so lucky to be using her space, stealing her great suggestions and meeting some of her wonderful colleagues.

Despite the long travel time, the mountains of Chiang Mai instilled the same energy that a perfect night's rest would have.

I started by getting coffee with two wonderful folks from Kate's work at the climbing company.  Then I did some bouldering (I mean, I was already there how could I pass it up?) After settling in to Katie's place and rinsing the airplane off me, I cautiously wandered around the narrow, windy roads to a delightful vegetarian cafe.

I enjoyed the peaceful rain as it vacilated between timid pitter-patter and booming footsteps. The food was devine. Lime, mint, pineapple smoothie,  brown rice with all sorts of deliciousness and organic salad. Num num.

I then got first, and most certainly not last, Thai massage. I don't think anything could have been more perfect. 

Despite the heavy rains and low thunder,  the light kept bursting through. Filling my jeart with a lift and reminding my spirit why I am here. What a day!

Chasing Dreams

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

9 years ago I took a yoga class for a PE credit at the University of Vermont. It had been recommended to me by the counseling center to help deal with some anxiety, stress and depression I was experiencing. 

18 months ago I made the decision to find a yoga instructor training program to participate in this Summer. I began taking the necessary steps to be physically, mentally and financially ready for such an undertaking. My goal was clear, but far from simple: learn yoga. Learn so I can share this life-changing joy with others. Learn so I can help spread peace, love and light. Learn so I can take this experience within myself to an undiscovered level. 

9 months ago, after months of internet searching and conversations, I found Blooming Lotus Studio on a little island in the Gulf of Thailand. For four weeks, along with 18 other committed yogis, I will be fully immersed in yoga practice, meditation, reflection and studying.

Today I begin my journey toward this new experience. I embark with an open mind, lifted heart and eager spirit. This first leg of journey I have only the butterflies in my stomach and words on my nook to keep me company. I cannot say I move forward without fear, but I am certainly prepared to taste this new chapter of my life. To allow it to flood into my soul, 

one. 

     moment. 

           at. 

               a. 

                 time.

Am I ready? 

Financially? Yes. 

Physically? I think so. 

Mentally? Not quite. But expecting that I cannot expect what's to come tells me that I'm as ready as I can be. 

Namaste.