It’s true. 55 days around the world is a trip beyond words. Did that just happen? ____________________The jet lag was mind-altering. The change of scene, culture, accent, power adaptors!!, and money every week, or more, was very cool. It was like being in a movie, but living it in real time. It was a very long movie. ______________The highlights stay with me; The long walks I took to enjoy each place…I worked 10 -20 hours per day, so the precious few hours I had to engage with each place was limited to about one incredible walk per week, and what fun it was.——————– There was Melbourne’s outdoor photo exhibit by the river, ABOVE THE EARTH, a startling collection of aerial photos that capture the beauty of our global family, the wealth of fascination that nature offers our little race, and the spectacular mess we’ve made of things, with messages of hope and guidance under each photo. This exhibit’s focus is on showing us that we and our planet are worth us all getting together for, to turn things around. We can do it! ________________Then, there was Brisbane, the ferry to the farmer’s market, fresh sausages, leafy greens, crisp apples, Irish musicians playing a tune for change in the hat, the taxi to the healthfood stores to fill my cloth bags with organic goodness: teas, veggies, tahini, almonds, and “crisps” (potato chips), so I could fill my fridge back at the hotel. Candy bars and minibar junk were pushed aside. I am sure the housekeepers were surprised to find a huge head of lettuce where once there was a Red Bull and Flake chocolate bar. Organic food was hard to find, but once I found it, I also found some excellent resources for each city; (yoga classes, music), some bright and helpful staff, and the best food anywhere. I loved the riverside botanic gardens, the students I met waiting for the high-speed ferry, and the funny birds that look prehistoric but nip into the city trashcans unabashedly.___________________I missed visiting with my friends in person, but managed to spend a long satisfying time on the phone catching up with my Australian friends, to hear how their lives have evolved since I was here last year and to catch them up on my worldtravels, my questions and my discoveries along the way. The Australians I know and love are all very active in creating solutions in ways that we grow food, build homes and community, and live sustainably, so it is always thrilling to me to hear of their progress and experiences living in this cutting edge way. (www.rivendell.com)______________________Onto New Zealand, where I was blessed to make an extraordinary friend, Jennifer, who had just moved to Christchurch on faith, with her husband and six children, and she was thriving with her new business, Mindsync. www.mindsync.com________________Returning to New Zealand, I find I am refreshed and reminded of the magic of being human. It is the sparkle in the eyes and voice of every “kiwi” I meet; the taxi drivers’ warmth and stories of their background’s, the ever-helpful hotel staffs, always good for a laugh or advice on a good restaurant, or a heater in the middle of the night. Even in spring in Christchurch, it was a bit on the nippy side. I made good use of the hotel sauna to heat my bones. Oh, what a cozy night that was at The Heritage Hotel. What a nice hotel: Walking distance to everything.____________The botanical gardens in Christchurch were brimming with tulips, and a black swan joined me for breakfast on the bench. ________Auckland gave me a chance to see 2 friends and walk long enough one evening to get really lost, in the rain. My map got wet and it was getting soggy, falling apart. The roads were twisted on the map like spaghetti, but somehow I managed to get back to the hotel 2 hours later than planned and soaked to the skin. That was funny, since it was the night before I was to fly to Italy the next morning, and I remembered I got lost in a NZ rainforest last year, the afternoon before my flight out of New Zealand. I guess it is a tradition now; Get lost the night before leaving New Zealand. I can’t think of a nicer place to get lost. I love New Zealand._______________5 FLIGHTS to get FROM NZ TO ITALY…See Damanhur blog below for my week off in Italy—Oh my, getting to Italy was a 37-hour saga that included 27 hours on 5 flights and a lot of movies on the best airline, Emirates, with a 2-hour stopover in the Dubai airport, with separate mosques in the airport for men and for women, a shopping corridor set up like a Disneyland for very serious shoppers….This was lost on me. I am not a shopper. There were marble floors fit for a queen. I sat right down on that shiny marble mosaic floor and peeled myself an orange! …before flying through London and Frankfurt back to Turin, Italy. Damanhur gave me a joyful break…then Oct 11-28 I was in London, back to work. Yes! I love London. What a great city: My cousin, Fiona and her fiance Bryn, had me over at their excellent flat for a few nights, my cousin Paul met Fi and I for a great Indian feast near Covent Gardens one night, then it was off to stay at the Danubius Hotel. The poor place seemed to fall apart little by little, day by day, sadly, but what a luxury to be near London’s Regent’s Park, the zoo, Hyde Park. It was perfection: the night’s walking through St. John’s Wood, walking under the street lights across Abbey Road, just like George, barefoot-Paul, Ringo and John in his white suit, walking from Abbey Road studios to the pub with Rick Kurek, my long lost friend who moved to London last May. It was great to hang out with a dear old friend after so many days on the road swirling in the newness….We listened to his new music (www.rickkurek.com), 3 great songs, and took a taxi cross town, and managed to enjoy the heck out of London, laughing about how we have been together in San Bernadino’s “World Famous Mt. Baldy Lodge,” Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Memphis, Nashville, Santa Barbara, and now London. Wonders never cease: The wonder of life’s ongoing mystery and adventure. _________________Yes, that was me on the London tube making the eye-contact-less, stoic Londoners giggle as I announced amongst so many squished riders with their faces jammed in someone else’s armpit, “So this is how you all get to know each other….” One of the trains was not working, and so my ride to the airport for my roundtrip-flight-in-a-day to Aberdeen started out with a 7am sardine can simulation ride on the London Underground train. I made the best of it, and getting them to laugh made the whole trip totally worth it……..I am half Scottish, with 13 cousins in the UK, so I even took a plane for a day to Aberdeen, Scotland, to visit with my beautiful aunt Joyce and cousins Hilary and Andrew. They had me over for lunch on their farm which was a great relaxing 7-hour visit, even if I flew from London just for the day. We had homemade bread hot from the oven, and a big bowl of veggie soup. We took a walk across the land’s green pastures, down the dirt country roads, past the cows and the rolls of freshly-cut hay. That was a much-loved quaint bit of family connection in the dizzying schedule.______________In an unsuccessful attempt to ease the jet lag, I stopped in NYC for five days on my way back to Maui. I lived in NYC for seven years, 1984-1991, so I spent some quality time with Jonni and Rick, two of my favorite people on the planet. They are both exceptionally talented and accomplished artists, and compassionate, exemplary human beings. I am so grateful for their friendship and the comfort of authentic loving friends in a sea of 22 airport security screenings and endless strangers….How blessed I felt to return to NY as a writer and photographer, after graduating from NYU in 1989 with a BA in writing and songwriting and performing. _____________________________Life is good. Living my dreams is really good. Traveling the world as a writer, seeing much of our human family in less than two months gave me a new perspective, a meaningful appreciation for how we are effecting the globe with our endless advertising, shopping, packaging, and movement. At the same time, every city had a thriving wave of awareness and conscious people shifting the balance in our collective favor with their commitment to non-Genetically modified foods, Spiritual awakening, strengthening communities and bringing music to the public. Art, music, and wellness can change the world like nothing else._________________________________ Thank goodness I am home and have started planting my organic garden and fruit tree forest….How many trees would I have to plant to make up for the carbon from my 22 flights? __________________________I loved the opportunity to travel as a writer, truly loved every moment. I love traveling so much, but was it worth that much carbon to fly five and six people around the world? I’ll be chewing on that one for a while, along with coconuts and starfruit from my trees here. It’s great to be home on Maui.__________________________________________________________ ____________ Before this trip, I prayed to be of service as a writer, to create global good effects______I can only guess it was a Divine Plan that swept me in and out of the lives of so many loved ones and new friends, like a dandelion seed on the wind. _________________Carrying me ever higher. _____________Thank you to all the Divine realms that supported this world-loop deloop, and my writing and photography on this trip. I loved the adventure. I love writing and capturing moments for all the world to see.
pleasure in mine.
