Small Thrill

Life has been so full lately and blogging seems to get relegated to the “it can wait till later” pile of things to handle.

A lovely friend told me about posting via email and this could possibly be the deal maker of me growing as a blogger!

Oh happy day!

Wondering in India Part 1

R and I went to India over Easter. We spent the week in New Delhi, Agra and Jaipur which is the Golden Triangle in Rajasthan. India is at once beautiful, ugly, magnificient yet shabby, ancient yet young.

In India, I felt uncomfortable amidsts the dirt, dust, insects and the rubbish. I worried incessantly about falling sick from drinking tainted water or eating contaminated food. All my physical concerns disconnected me from the spirit of India especially during the first couple of days when we got from New Delhi to Agra in a car after being told it was not possible for us to get train tix without booking. So we had a nice ride in a car where we experienced India with a Guide whilst driven around in a sedan. It was the “bubble” India experience.

As we got into the groove of India, R and I told our driver we didn’t want a guide and he can have the day off. He was shocked! We arranged for a meeting time and place and we set off on foot to ‘wonder’. That was the first of a few wonders.

This gave us a true taste of India and we happily ‘got lost’ and by doing so experienced some of our best India moments:

- Meeting the snake charmer

- Wondered into the Sari bazaar

- Given a flower from a flower merchant

- Palm reading by a supposedly famous astrologer/palmist

- Being taken by tuk tuk driver to a ‘shopping mall’ which was another souvenir emporium where we

-Admiring Indian arts and crafts

-Wondering around one of the biggest bazaar in Asia and buying lots of lovely Kurtas (flowy soft Indian shirts)

-Bringing home some lovely pashminas and hand madebedspreads in a sari shop

-Walking in the electronic districts where there are shops upon shops selling mobile phones with not a tourist in sight

-Smiles of random strangers who allowed me to take their pictures

R and I always travel with a part of the trip unplanned. During our honeymoon, we had the first 3 day planned and just decided to just flow with the rest of the two weeks. We invited a couple of wedding crashers and it was so much fun to have company. We even ended up spending a night at the tiny Split airport in Croatia. I love the freedom to just figure it out as we go.

Before we left for India, R asked me if I cared that he has only booked accommodation for our first and second night. We just flowed with it and it felt like life always meet us half way because we were always at the right place at the right time.

In this I should trust even more so when I return to the routine of the everyday.

Bite Size Inspirations: Aliveness

"Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being... Wherever we may come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual."

David Steindl-Rast

I am experiencing spirit through time with R (my husband) and Momo (my furry child), writing, running, crafts, photography, dreaming.

Which area of life are you connecting with the spiritual right now?

A New Earth

Along with millions of people around the world, I am reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and taking a 10 week online course through Oprah’s collaboration with Eckhart.

Since I started, I have been sharing and recommending the book to everyone I know. I truly believe this book has the power to change humanity and transform the way we are living today and bring about a new way of relating to people, the world and how we choose to live day to day. Outwardly life doesn’t really look that different for me. Inwardly, I feel a whole universe has shifted.

Some self-observations from the past few weeks:
my lack of focus – It is hard for me to do something from start to finish. My attention gets drawn to a thought, a noise, a word and then my mind starts following whatever that was and my attention fractures and I loose focus on the task at hand.
shallow breathing
hurry sickness - I am constantly in a hurry and barely present in the moment
seeing a lot more beauty around me – in people, in the familiar
flooded by inspiration – for color, art, creativity, design, words, poetry
a happy desire to work with my hands and create things – paint, draw, collage
a longing for silence or at the very least less noise
giving up resistance on things like housework and even enjoying doing it
more loving and connected to people, friends and family
things seem to flow with incredible ease
fleeting moments of awareness of the stream of thoughts that goes through my mind all the time

The idea that millions of people are also undergoing similar shifts in consciousness is so exciting! In the last 7 weeks, I have often wondered what is the collective impact of so many people awakening at the same time and what is the tipping point for the collective consciousness of humanity to raise?

I just feel such joy to see technology and fame being brought to use in such an enriching and generous way. : )

Too much stuff

My shoulder is throbbing a little from hauling around a handbag that’s too heavy.
What I crammed in my bag today:

(Wallet and keys, Moleskin Diary, The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille, A small spiral bound which is a bag staple, my fashion mag scrapbook, gym gear sans shoes, Iphone (which was used to take this pic), spare headphone and adaptor, tissues, make-up bag, pens, crystal pouch with 4 crystals in it (the red velvet pouch in the pic), tear sheet from magazine which i took out during the day.

I switched from a huge bottomless bag to a much smaller one a few months ago to lighten the load, literally and metaphorically. I always have too much stuff, on me, around me, buying, collecting, hoarding, saving it for the elusive someday.

This is a picture of my old office many years ago.

I am now purging emotionally, physically thing anything that no longer serves to add quality or beauty to my life. I have received a lot of inspiration and support from a few sources online: check out unclutterer, Peter Walsh Design, oprah (where I discovered Peter Walsh). Itunes store also has some podcasts on organising which was pretty good. I also youtube-d "clutter and organise" got a few vids but i think Peter's show clips on Oprah.com is probably the best and easiest to follow.

I am really enjoying the lightness space creates. I am tear sheeting what feels like a million Lucky Magazine and home decor magazine. I scrapbook what i like, find inspiring, beautiful, whimsical and scrapbooking it is like creating a big juicy mag i can flick through over and over again with only the best bits.

Little Things

I like to place small precious objects on the speaker ledge of my laptop. The Buddha sometimes "floats"on the row of function keys, light and ethereal. I love looking at this little Buddha statue as it reminds me the importance of inner peace.

The funny rock is from SS. She gave it to me when we were on vacation in Hvar Croatia last year. We gave each other gifts of pebbles as we were lying on the little pebble beach. I hold it intermittenly throughout the day to feel connected to her and the beauty and serenity of Hvar.

The little elephants also come and go on my computer speaker ledge. They remind me to be joyful and playful. Smooth pebble also another souvenir from Hvar. The Amethyst clutter is my birthday gift from mum. Its meant to absorb computer radiation and also help me focus.

My little things keeps my desk alive with play. Looking at them, holding them or moving them around infuse me with happiness and keeps me connected to people and things important to me.

Memory of an irritation

A few days ago, in the office, I felt something irritating my eye and I tried ignoring it. When that didn’t work I tried rapid blinking. Pretty soon after, the discomfort consumed my attention and so after some intense mirror work, prodding, cotton-swabbing and eye-dropping, the culprit, a tiny filament of fiber was located and removed. As I got back to work, my eye insisted that something else was still there. So back to the mirror and I started over with another round of prodding and peering which yielded nothing.

There was nothing in my eye. However, the discomfort was very real. Eventually, it disappeared.

It suddenly occurred to me there are two types of memories of irritations.-
The physical kind similar to the dust fiber leaving a discomfort after its removal. The bumps and scratches which leaves scars after the physical healing. Something in physical form confirmed their ending which helped us moving on.

What about the impact of emotional irritations? I realized so many of the opinions and judgments I have about people and life are made during moments of irritation. But instead of bearing with the discomfort and letting them disappear, they become ‘real’ for me and as the irritation festers the memory of the irritation ceased to be a memory but instead a foregone reality.

From the slow cashier to the waitress at yum cha, my parents, my sisters, colleagues, my dog, friends, ex-boyfriends and husband no one is truly free from clocking up memories of irritations! I realized even with people I love, our relationships are still cast in many different shadows borne from big and small moments of irritations because I never gave them the space to disappear.

I felt sad for what was and yet happy for what can now show up in all my relationships. I will no longer give credence to these amorphous memories of irritations and allow them to separate me from others, especially when it comes to the people I love and care about.