Thursday, June 26, 2008

Pensive reflections

We were rockin' out to the Beatles while washing dishes this morning (right?? these guys love the Beatles...the 11 year old guest who visits during the week in the summer studied them in school!), and I looked out the kitchen window, past the old, dilapidated outdoor latrine into the neighbor's bamboo forest.

I errupted into laughter--you know my belly laugh...something like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman? This is my life. I'm washing tea cups and rice bowls and serving plates and chop sticks and spoons and frying pans and listening to the beatles at 9AM after the morning harvest and preparing the food...

I think of my friends back home, tied to their jobs, debts, fears, loves, stuff...I think many of them would love to be here. How many people have told me they admire my courage for striking out on my own and following my heart and trusting the universe to provide along the way. I am so fascinated to watch the thought seeds planted in my mind years ago coming to fruition in the most unlikely ways...learning to weave, make bagels, share music, meditate, calm my mind, use my body, teach yoga, be a healer. Studying AP European history in high school, I wanted to be a Renaissance woman--to speak 5 languages fluently, be a master craftsman, carpenter, painter, sculptor, geographist, mathematician...I thought it was impossible, but I'm perceived as the everything woman here.

A few mornings ago, I ripped out a piece of the thin ply-wood wall and replaced it with a corrigated plastic roofing panel while the other american wwoofer made french toast out of the cinnamon raisin challa we'd baked the night before. Keiko and friends got a good laugh: the woman carpenter and the man cook. I also sing, cook, speak a little Thai, teach yoga, and pretty much any farm chore they've given me, I've done: daijobe, mon dai nai...everything ok, no problem/no worries. :)

Anyone can do this.

Anyone can do this.

I believe.

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