Back in Nepal

It's been a wild and woolly ride, these last ten days. What surprised me the most, was saying goodbye to His Holiness. Now this is a man whom I'd met once when we first arrived in a private meeting with Tony, who knows him well, Emily, William and myself. He was immediately human, talking with Tony about his health, his concerns about the health of his monks (Tony is an MD) etc. There was all the usual catching up about family, what was to come in the next few weeks at the monastery. I listened. Smiled. Spoke minimally. The next two days I sat in a temple with a few hundred monks and received two empowerments. Then a week later, we went to say goodbye. And this is the odd thing. I felt my heart open to this man. I wanted to cry. I felt bereft I couldn't understand it. He gently took my hand, told me that he'd heard that when people go to Australia, they fall in love. I think he meant to say that they fall in love with Australia but who am I to argue. I told him I was looking forward to it. And then he went back to his preparation for that evening's teaching and my heart ached. So Tony and Emily and William and I packed up our things, journeyed on to visit two other monasteries, meet new monks, and enjoy each other's company.

When I returned to Nepal, I noticed a difference. The only time I've experienced this is in the first rush of new love, when I've felt loved and beautiful and certain that regardless of what the world might bring my way, I was wanted in a most thorough and seen way. I felt taller, stronger, more graceful as if I had a secret joy inside that was private.

For the next eight days I will be sitting with Julie in a small group of 19 of us. It will entail body work, emotional work and the mystery that is this transmission business. I am grateful for the gift of time and resources to explore this. I am amazed at the potential of life, that at 59, my curiousity and insistence that life can be more has brought me here. It is a gift.