Trip Itinerary - Switzerland

For those who might not know, I am going to be spending a week in Switzerland for my birthday. As fate would have it, I was sitting at my desk listening to WBUR, my favorite NPR station, and they mentioned if you donate, you could get a ticket to the Dalai Lama talk in Boston. Well, that got me really excited as I have been wanting to go hear the Dalai Lama talk...that's one of my "Things to do before I die" list. Last year when I checked his website out, he had no travel plans on the agenda so after I heard he was going to be in Boston, I headed to his website and lo and behold a packed calendar! I quickly scanned the dates and noticed he was going to be talking ON MY BIRTHDAY! Sweet! And then I saw it was going to be in Switzerland...not so sweet...especially after I took a look at my budget.

Seeing how I have strong Badger energy, well, I immediately started digging. After all, how often does one have something on their "Things to do before I die" list pop up on their birthday? So, after doing some digging, turns out I could do this trip for approximately $2,000...including a round trip plane ticket...but I'd have to camp, which was all set to go as one of my friends was going to go with me to help split the costs. Yippie! So I buy the plane ticket and then turns out that she couldn't go with me. Waahhh!

Well, I've already got the plane ticket, so I was going to go. I figured, if I could travel around Japan without knowing ANY of the language except "Thank you" and "Goodbye" that I could make it in Switzerland...I do know a little bit of German after all. VERY little, but more than what I know in Japanese anyway. haha So I'm good and then my sister and my other friends are freaking out because I'm going to go by myself and then out of the blue, my friend TE, calls me up to catch up. We have dinner and I let her know about my trip and she wants to go with me, so now I have a traveling companion and everyone is all relaxed again. ha!
The other night, TE, goes riding and meets this guy from Australia and turns out he lived in the city where the Dalai Lama is going to speak. So he kindly gave us a lot of tips and after we got to know him a bit he offered to call his friends that still live there and see about putting us up for the time we are going to be there because it was Black Fly season and we would be eaten up if we camp. Wow, now talk about a small world huh? Anyway, we're waiting to hear from him to see how this will go.

As my friend, MS, said, "It should all work out, either way; fate smiles down on an open-minded traveler! =)"

So here is the plan for my most awesome world adventure!

Saturday arrive in Geneva, Switzerland. Explore the city and try really, really hard not to go to sleep until 10 pm to help with the Jet Lag.

Sunday make our way to Lausanne via train, to either the camp ground or to the Aussie friend's place.

Monday we have to explore Lausanne, hopefully go to the Swiss Army Knife Store. I want their motorcycle knife. :o)

Tuesday & Wednesday - the Dalai Lama!! Yippie!
 

Thursday & Friday - ride motorcycles through the Alps.

Saturday, fly back to the US. :o)

No worries, I will be picking up cowbells for everyone. ;o) haha Except for my sister who gets Kinder Eggs. haha And yes, I will be taking loads of pictures.

 

Catch you all in a week!!

Oh my gosh! I'm 7 again!

haha I was surfing You Tube and I came across...

VOLTRON! Defender of the Universe!

I can recall my sister and I rushing home from school so we could watch VOLTON! Defender of the universe!

Wee! What fun! haha

Drumming

Does it seem like I'm spamming now? haha Like the moon, I have my periods of creativity and then of nothingness, so bear with me. ;o)

On the spur of the moment, I was invited by my dear friend SW to go to a introduction to Drumming in Asheville. So I happily accepted her offer and went with her.

Larry, the guy running the drumming tent, offers free drum lessons at the French Broad Food Co-op on Monday nights in Asheville and I think he also spearheads the Friday night Drumming Circle downtown Asheville. Really cool guy. He's the one with the cowboy hat.

Look at me, so very intent on making sure I was maintaining the beat. Which worked...until I started thinking. Which, as everyone knows happens to me all the time. So yes, I was very aware and so were the poor people around me as to how unable I was to keep a steady beat. haha

Anyway, it is a bit difficult to describe drumming so I went through the trouble of uploading a video clip on to You Tube of the Women's Drumming Troupe in Asheville called "Wild Bodema." Who performed for us in between drumming workshop demonstrations.

You want to talk about people having FUN! These women most definitely ARE! See, this is what happens when you have rhythm and practice a lot. And if you don't THINK. haha

If your drumming becomes too bad, they carry you off stage like this poor guy... ;o)

Remember to smile and laugh. Life doesn't have to be so serious. :o)

Festival of Native People

I have wanted to go to a Native American Powwow for a while now, I thought that it would be really cool to see people embracing their Heritage. Well, I ended up missing the Powwow at Cherokee but lucky for me, the next weekend had something called the “Festival of Native People” and I think this was more along the lines of what it was that I really wanted to experience.

When I watched this advertisement on the Cherokee website, I really found myself emotionally affected.

I’m not really sure why, I just felt moved almost to tears by the video. I figured it must have been just seeing so many smiling faces as they were sharing their endangered cultural heritage. In fact, with many of the speakers, the leaders usually fathers, would talk about how proud they are to be able to share their culture with people who actually want to know about it, but also to have their own young people wanting to learn about their culture to keep it alive. I got teary eyed several times as these men would get choked up expressing how proud they were of their children wanting to learn the traditions.

During the break, we got a chance to go through the Native Arts and Craft tents. As we were walking through, the Apache performers, who were mostly teenage boys wearing the baggy jeans and hip-hop tennis shoes and backwards baseball caps, were stopped several times by people who just wanted to tell them how much they enjoyed their performances. These boys were just so amazed by all the attention they were getting. I overheard them say with disbelief in their voices, “Wow man, I can’t believe how many people have come up to us.” There was a bit of pride in that statement as well.

I found this to be another example of how just expressing your enjoyment or appreciation can really have a positive influence on others. A simple thumbs up from a stranger caused these guys to just light up.

Sometimes, it’s just the simple things that have the greatest impact on people.

Tribes represented were:

Cherokee-Shown here doing an audience participation dance.

 

Zuni - had a lot of really cool outfits so I'm going to show a couple from them.

Eagle Dancer with real Eagle Feathers.

Water Maidens, they were balancing pottery on their heads as they did their dance.

Just thought this was cool because it really reminded me of their well known Animal Fetish carvings. The guys in the Buffalo outfits are holding thunderbolts that you see on the fetishes.

Hawaiians - They performed twice. Once during the day and at the end. When they said they were going to do a Pele Honor Ceremony, I thought for sure that it would involve fire, but it didn't and I was sad, but still the drumming was incredible.

Apache - These are teenage boys I was talking about earlier. They were actually doing ceremonial rituals. This one was in honor of the sacred directions.

Totonac Pole Fliers from Mexico. These guys are amazing, they climb to the top of this VERY tall pole and then tie a rope to their ankles and slowly twirl down the pole upside down while the guy at the very top plays his flute. Wild!

Seriously, nothing else is securing them except for that rope on their ankle!

Git Hoan from British Columbia. I really liked them, they had a lot of really cool masks and really told their people's stories and songs. I liked that sprinkle of history into their dances. This particular one involves a horrible beast (looks like a mosquito) and the water maiden who is trying to warn the hunter, but he ignores her and ends up dying. Then she warns another man, who also ignores her and ends up dying and then she warns a woman, who listens to her and ends up killing the beast. See it pays to listen to nature people! ;o)

Inca Son from Peru. Their music was so relaxing that I got really sleepy during their performance.

Then it was the Hawaiians again. They did this really cool opening where the only guy blew into the shell to make a horn noise.

I honestly think that the woman's face on the left says it all when it comes to how they felt performing their native culture to such a receptive audience.

She was just absolutely beaming. Just had a HUGE SMILE on her face the entire time.

How blessed were the people in the audience to be witness to pure joy. Makes me smile just thinking about it.

Firewalk

Let me tell you, ever since my dear friend, NE, told me about a firewalk she did, I’ve been wanting to do one. So for the past two years or so, I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a firewalk being offered in the area.

Well, as luck (or is it?) would have it, B&T went to go see a Native Elder, Rainbow Eagle, speak at a place called “The Garden” in North Carolina. Turns out they do a firewalk every now and then. Well, since B&T have heard me talk about my desire to do a firewalk they got all the necessary information to find out about making it a reality. Did I mention just how much I think that B&T ROCK?! They are THE BEST people you could ever hope to meet! I am so very blessed to have them in my community of friends.

As with everything in life, your intentions have everything to do with your experience. Everyone comes to a firewalk with whatever it is they wish to experience. I had thought about the firewalk so much that I wasn’t actually all that excited about doing the firewalk as in, I knew I could do the walk with no problems. I was more excited about being able to sleep in a Teepee. Yes, I am odd.

My intention for the firewalk was to see what sorts of feelings and emotions or thoughts that would come up right before being faced with the challenge of walking on fire. I figured that this would be very representative of how I handle challenges in life. Well, Spirit threw me a curve ball. I learned more about how I handle challenges in life with the trust exercises that we did before we did the actual firewalk. I learned that I have to think about what it is that I’m going to be doing and then once I commit to the activity, I have a little twinge of fear, but I go for it fully. If I get a chance to think about the activity for a long time, like I did for the firewalk, it’s like I’ve already done it, and I had no fear. Just bring it on so I don’t have to think about it anymore!

So the highlights.

Fire Ceremony. From the Lakota or perhaps the Inca tradition. We were given red square cloth in which we made an intention and then took a bit of ceremonial tobacco and placed it in the square. Then tied our squares into little bundles with red string, and held it up to our ancestors and to Spirit to acknowledge our prayers of intention. At one point, I noticed that I started folding my little bundle into a wonton shape, this made me grin and made me feel connected and acknowledged by my Korean ancestors.

Then right before the firewalk, we finished the fire ceremony by placing the bundles into the fire and “washing” ourselves with the fire. Yes, we actually placed our hands into the fire and brought the energy to our chakras and over our crown. Very powerful.

Falling exercise. This exercise was probably the most profound for me. On these metal folding chairs, we climbed on top of a 2” by 6” board and then fell back into the waiting arms of strangers. I kept looking at the board convinced that there was NO WAY it was going to hold me, I don’t care WHAT they say! And then my BFF, CC, goes up there without so much as blinking an eye. O_o

What was so cute was that once she was on the board you could see that she was now thinking, “What the <beep> was I thinking?!” haha Then she did it. I was so stunned by her determination and courage to go, that I went next. Once I got up there, I got to thinking about technique (my bad habit) and then told my brain to shut up, and then just fell backward.

This exercise told me so much about myself. I saw how I approach situations, how I react, and just how much stronger I am than I had previously thought. Just absolutely profound.

Running with eyes close. The next exercise was running in a field, trusting that you would be told to stop before you were injured by running into a tree or into the creek. Ha! Again, another realization about myself. I will go into something full force and will slow down if I think that I should already be at the end which will cause me to slow down (doubt myself) and that I need reinforcement. I also can’t run straight, I tend to run to the right. Haha

The firewalk, amazing, yet not at all scary. I got more out of walking across the fire with TM and CC. I didn’t feel heat on my feet and only felt the discomfort of walking across a bunch of loose pebbles. After the ceremony, we gave thanks to the fire, and when we kneeled down in front of it, the heat from the coals was incredibly hot. Which just reinforced that hey, you did walk on FIRE! Here are our dirty feet to prove it! Yeah, not as dirty as you would think it would be.  We didn't take pictures during the actual ceremony because apparently that causes people to not be in the right frame of mind and they tend to get burned. So...yeah, I chose NOT to take pictures during the firewalk!

The night was capped off with me and CC sleeping in a Teepee. Everyone else either slept in the house or went home. It was absolutely amazing to lie there and look up through the top of the teepee and see the stars in the sky. I can still feel the peace that I felt as I laid there before drifting off to sleep.

I am really blessed!

Holy smokes! In the past couple of weeks, I have been having such wonderful experiences.

I will break the events up into separate blog posts to go into them in more detail but I am sitting here and I am just completely overwhelmed by just how HAPPY I feel. I feel as though my heart is going to burst with joy.

Since I last wrote, I have experienced a Firewalk, the Festival of Native People’s at Cherokee Reservation, gave a talk at a local Metaphysical Group about “The Importance of Integrating Knowledge,” went and participated in an introduction to Drumming at a Festival, and I’m currently gearing up and finishing up the last minute details to a dream trip of mine…to see the Dalai Lama.

Part of me is saying, “You know, in this economy, you really should be staying home and saving and paying off your bills.” And the other part of me is saying, “Shut the <beep> up, this is a trip of a lifetime! DO IT!” (Yes, not very higher self, but my higher self usually doesn’t mince words. Haha) As my good friend, TM, reinforced in his talk on Thursday, the point of life is to experience it.

And I’m almost overwhelmed with emotions, mostly an overflowing feeling of pure joy and happiness, at actually DOING things. LIVING!

Wow. How awesome.

Message of Butterfly

One night, I was having a delightful conversation with BM&TM. In which we were discussing the topic of "Change." We observed that so many people are afraid of change that they would rather be in the living hell that they are in and would fight you tooth and nail against you in order to stay in their misery. Why? Because there is a certain level of comfort in the known.

Look at a lot of people repeating the same pattern of behaviors and then complain, "Why does this always happen to me?" Well, because they keep going back to the pattern of behavior that is known and has a certain comfort. How many of us know people who complain about having horrible boyfriends or girlfriends and yet continue to date various clones of their horrible ex?! It takes a certain kind of strength to break out of the cycle, to get use to something that isn't known!

I read an article by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times called "Loss of Innocence" in which he purchased the freedom of two teen prostitutes in Cambodia and arranged it so they would be reunited with their families they were taken from as young girls. One of the girls willingly went back to the brothel who had kidnapped her in the first place, and one can only guess that the real reason was the fear of the unknown and all the new variables that came into her life at this new life.

When I think of stories like that I am reminded of a story that TM told me:

A person noticed a butterfly struggling so very hard to break out of the chrysalis. The observer watched as the butterfly fought and fought and felt a little sorry for it and then watched as the butterfly finally broke free and flew off.

The observer then came across another butterfly struggling out of the chrysalis. This time, the observer thought she would help and so she cut the chrysalis so the butterfly wouldn't have to struggle and could just fly away.

But, the butterfly could not fly and ended up dying. The struggle of the butterfly out of the chrysalis was important and part of the process of strengthening the butterfly so when it finally did break out, it would have the strength to fly off on its own.

Sometimes, when you are going through what seems to be hell, is just a time in which you are are developing the strength for a new phase in life.  It's all a matter of perspective and perception. Unfortunately, most of us don't have the ability to see too far into the future, so we aren't able to see the immediate blessings of the situation we are going through at the moment and yet when we look back, we can see the gift of the struggle in our present situation and that it wasn't as horrible or as bad as we thought it was...

Sometimes, the rewards of the struggles have a habit of making us forget the pain and the struggles of the journey.

 

But the question is, "How do you know what the outcome will be until you are WILLING to try?"