The bus stops here.... So, my plans have changed for maybe the tenth time and I am leaving in a few days. I had been planning on attending a peace conference in Pakistan on the 2nd of April and was going to return to the states shortly after. Then, the conference got postponed because of some bombings and I found out that the ticket I had planned to use for returning home was not available and that I needed to use my original ticket which leaves in three days. Good thing I wasn't off meditating in the Ashram without internet access. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi from Ahmedebad........again, Well it has taken me almost a month, but I am starting to get the hang of being Indian. Several people have laughed and commented on how Indian I am at my heart. It took me awhile to figure out why I was so disoriented, but then I realized....its because everything is different. When you get down to it, we are all just people, but the culture is completely different in every way. It took me awhile to get the hang of all the small things, like how to eat and drink and use the bathroom differently, but [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi From Ahmedebad and Manav Sadhna, I am living in Ahmedebad for the month and working with an NGO called Manav Sadhna, which is an associate of the Ghandi Ashram and is located on the same grounds. Ahmedebad is one of the worst crowded, polluted and slum ridden cities in India.....ah, home. So it has taken me a little while to get grounded enough to write. India is wild, but not safari wild, wild in the way that it makes you realize you have lived your whole life in a whisper and have been surrounded by sterile, cold, panes of glass. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi, I arrived in Delhi about a week ago via Hong Kong, which was amazing. I had about 12 hours of layover in Hong Kong, so I left the airport and went exploring. Originally, I was just going to wander around but somehow I found out about the "Big Buddha" and decided to make my way there. Hong Kong was a British ruled island, just off of mainland China, up until about twenty years ago when it was given back to China. Supposedly, lots of people spoke english, but in reality, lots of people spoke one or two words of english. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Beloved You walked across mountains for my love moved boulders in your deepest sleep opened the hearts of others, through miracles, for me, unfolded the wide universe in your kiss. Still, I forget your name. Still, I forget your presence. "Be Still", you say, and I am. As fears cascade from my eyes and at once, I am healed from all suffering. You have scooped the whole ocean in your hand and given me its bounty, unfolded the pattern of a million stars within your eyes, yet, I forget to look when the sun rises to greet me. And I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi from the Maitreya Meditation Center.... So, its been a couple weeks since I last wrote and its been kind of a wild ride since then. I will only mark the highlights really to keep the length down a little. When I last wrote, I was in Nelson for a little RnR after the Abel Tasman. The next day I moved on to Kaikora, a small town along the north east coast of the south island. Kaikora is located along a Peninsula and was a once famous whaling town so there was lots of history and a strong fishing culture. It [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi from Nelson.... Well, I am off the Abel Tasman trail along the Gold Coast of the South Island. It was a beautiful walk filled with amazing beach scenery. Hopefully you won't find the pictures redundant....there are only so many pictures of beautiful beaches you want to see when you are stuck at work (I get it). So the hike started out on Tuesday morning, via water taxi. It was a short ride and the hiking was a day spent on gradual, well graded, mostly shaded track which clung to the cliffs along the Abel Tasman Marine Reserve. It was lush [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi from Kaiteriteri (kuy-tear-e-tear-e)... Wow, it has been a truley wonderful week. When I last wrote, I was waiting for the weather to clear to go on my next hike. The next day, I had the break I was hoping for and headed out for a three day trek through Tongariro National Park. It's a big tourist attration because they have the Tongariro crossing which is a one day hike over a couple of volcanoes and with some beautiful emerald green lakes. To start my trek, I got on the tourist bus and was dropped off with the hundreds of others [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi from National Park....(yeah, its a town). Happy New Year first and foremost. I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and is feeling more relaxed after the mayhem and festivities. I have been traveling in the North Island of New Zealand for about a week now. I arrived on the 30th, just in time to make a go at the New Years in Auckland. It was just fine, although forgettable. But, I rang in the new year with my first hike (or "tramp" as the say in NZ)...a 10 mile round the island hike of Rangitoto, which is a dormant volcanoe situated [View Full Entry]

---

---

A little writing from the trip.... Keep in mind that these are all early drafts and need some more editing : ) Two Worlds the richness, the texture the color of your skin the melody of your voice, rumbling with pronunciation of words I do not understand, entrances me, leads me to another dimension where we can speak with mutual admiration of the differences that separate us the things which draw us at once apart and together and finally it is only silence we share and a smile that tells us both that all is the same in the end, into [View Full Entry]

---

---