Rebuilding Nepal one by one

When I trekked in Nepal I found the warmth of the people and their simple life a sharp contrast to the terrains of the mountain.  Yet these people lived there with a smile.   Every morning I saw  children running up and down the mountains in their school uniforms, a lightness and joy in their step.  

When Dipak wrote to me how his village homes are destroyed by the earthquake, and the ones that remain standing are not safe to live in, I started  thinking of the upcoming winter.  Now is the time to begin to think of homes for the children and their families.   A safe school where the children can study.  

I have started a fundraising campaign towards raising money for helping a friend rebuild his village in Nepal.   Please help, by contributing any amount possible for you, towards this fund.  http://www.gofundme.com/irum4nepal

Also share this with as many friends to enable us to reach the goal.  

Thank You.

Always, from my heart to yours. 

Breathe or Think

When thoughts have the power to inflict pain on oneself, or project the same on another, then breath is the savior.  

When in doubt bring attention to the breath, again, again, and yet again.  It is possible that the thoughts will lose their power.  

Thoughts imprison, breath frees. Where one can take life away, the other gives, sustains. 

Why a day!

Life itself is the celebration, then why only a day to acknowledge?

It seems that the day called "Mothers Day" is a day celebrated to say "thank you" to our mothers.  Even though many consider this to be a "hallmark" holiday, the show of love and appreciation makes it special.   The effect of the expression accumulates and symbolically seems like an 'overflow of the river of love'.

The sun sets on the day, the hearts soften and open.

Each heart and each expression of love is infused with the raw unconditional love.  It's expressed by children and their children towards their mothers and their mothers.

Those alive and those not, all are remembered. 

I wonder if the energy of the day could be captured! The world, the inner and all outer ones will light up. 

So yes pause and acknowledge.   Every moment, every day, and then why not express it collectively.  

In all it itty, gritty, messy, way this is the joy.   Being a mother is the start and continuation of life.  

It's a love shown to the other through thoughtfulness, nurturing, and well being of self and the other.

sitting in the evening sun

The rays of the sun are warm even as the day draws to a close.  

The snow has melted, the crocus and the daffodils bloom.  The miracles of nature both a testimony and a reminder to life, it's cycles, and the permanence in the impermanence.  I am reminded of these lines from our teacher here at the institute.  After a deep guided relaxation, towards the end he guides us back to awareness and you hear his voice " rest your body, the finite in the infinite".

I close my eyes.   A few more moments to relish this sunshine, before my reverie changes to "eat your dinner before the evening session"...

Spring is hope for more sunshine, and a summer that awaits in its shadow.  

Why did I choose my parents

Odd title for this blog, yet that's exactly what just dawned.

Where am I and why the realization now? 

To give a perspective begins with this comment of "why we are drawn to certain paths, roads, detours etc".   I am driving towards The Himalayan Institute which is in Honesdale, Pennsylvania and after six hours of driving in the non stop rain I decide to call it a night.  I am redirected to the Country Inn and Suites in Cortland, NY.  

After a nice hot whirlpool soak I sit by the fireplace.   The calm is overcoming and I begin to feel a wave of tranquility.  

Later in the night I do some past life regression hypnosis with Brian Weiss on his YouTube video.  I have been on this self reflective week long expedition since the Lunar eclipse.   Each night going a little deeper into the past realm. 

So here I am casually walking in for breakfast, past the hour that the girl at the reception mentioned, and lo and behold there is abundance of food.  Eating my fruit and sipping my chai I look out this window and "bing" the answer appears.  

my parents before my birth

The reason why I chose my parents was for who they were, and also because of their extended family which I inherited.  They provided security of family, tribe, and food and shelter.  They securely ground my foundation in this physical realm.  The love and attention of the extended family compensated for not getting sole attention of the parents.  We moved a lot of homes and locations.  My father was in the Air Force and yes I was born in an Air Force base.  Planes, their sounds and their flights were as part of my cellular existence as the sunshine of the tropics.   My fathers colleagues and others became the extended family.  Their children became the "extended siblings", relationships forming for what seemed like a lifetime. 

The security of my existence never questioned.  

Now I move and I relocate at a drop of a hat. Walking or driving, I even choose new routes to discover.  

Education was important and it instilled in me that life is the learning, the lessons.  I developed the curiosity to discover.  

I see this clearly and my own purpose begins to emerge.  Knowing who I am comes from knowing where and why I came to this life, it is what propels me to be and do what I do. 

Who am I is then not the question I grapple.  Instead I am reminded of how effectively I live.  How do I fulfill what is mine to do.   It is this life path.   This is the  purpose.