Refreshed

I've finally posted an article on our New Thought News Service blog. It's about the Dalai Lama's Gyuto Monks of Tibet. There are four of them here at the parliament. In fact, they've been camped out about 50 paces from where we, the New Service, have been all week.
They are truly beautiful human beings.
The last few days have been a whirlwind of wonderful experiences. I've not been getting as much sleep as I would like because I've wanted to soak up every moment possible! Some of my favorite people in the world are here and getting to spend time with them has been a beautiful gift.
Yesterday, I finally found a grocery store nearby and was able to buy some organic peanut butter. I love peanut butter, as my family will attest and I'd been meaning to get some for my breakfasts and such. So finally getting some was awesome.
I then jumped into the piece about the monks. I'd gotten interviews with the director of their program in Australia, a self-described Scottish Presbyterian Buddhist, and the multi-talented translator, a former monk and well educated (in the western model) nut. The "nut" part refers to his unusual, disarming and super corny sense of humour.
Taking a break from writing, I walked the five minutes back to the hostel at which I'm staying and made an awesome lunch. Three pieces of toasted, seed inundated bread with peanut butter and slices of Pink Lady apples. HOMYGOD. Berry, berry good. I shared with Suz and Katie and Bree and then asked Kathleen to get me a couple of sushi rolls from across the way. That was sort of impulse more than anything else.
After I'd finished my story, a great relief, I went on an adventure with the crew into the city. Our goal: an awesome bead shop Rev. Linda'd heard about. So we found the place, then the rest of my companions got food, we got starbucks, enjoyed the city sights and generally absorbed.
I wasn't too jazzed by the bead store, to be honest, nor by the Vintage Clothing store that was across the hall. Though they were interesting places both. What I really loved about this particular arcade was the Collected Works Bookstore. I just love bookstores. And this wasn't a used bookstore, this was as its name describes. The proprietor was more a book collector and librarian than dealer. I overheard him saying to Katie that he often liked to make sure his customers and their purchases were a good match. Was that book going to the right home? Or, why would this person want that book?
It was a great place.
We headed back to the Parliament and did one thing or another at our little news station. Bree and I had a really interesting conversation about heart and mind and where they are leading me. My mind tells me to "stay the course" and follow my current plan for after Palomar. That is to enroll this coming fall at either CSU San Marcos or Monterey Bay. My heart, on the other hand, tells me to reexamine an idea I had earlier this year: to move to WA for a year to establish residency and attend the Evergreen State College to finish my BA. This is where my heart was last night AND it still is today. I like the fact that I'll have finished my A.A. degree at Palomar regardless of my later plans. That will feel like a powerful accomplishment, something that would make taking a year off school that much more feasible.
And why might I want to do that? Here's the most succinct reason, besides the feeling that this is my heart speaking, I am called to truly enjoy my experience of finishing my BA. And I am very committed to making it a deeply satisfying, gratifying and inspiring experience all the way through. SO, taking a year to read, to live, to expand my comfort zone, to live life in a way that is sustainable, inspiring, socially responsible, and truly enjoyable, would also give me time to really flesh out what it is I want to study for this last period of my undergrad.
So. There it is. That's what I'm putting into the universe. My intention for school is to be truly, truly inspired, challenged and inspired by my work, to develop all of my interests and synchronize them.

AH! I got to play Capoeira yesterday! Last night there was a Youth Coffee night at which many beautiful people performed, dancers, singers and such. And there was this guy whom I'd seen earlier in the week wearing pants that really reminded me of capoeira style pants. So last night I asked him, "Do you play?" He had, though many years previous. A few minutes later, BAM! We played the most awkward and enjoyable games of Capoeira. It was so wonderful. I had a smile from ear to ear. It was so wonderful. And it was one of my intentions to play while here. I knew there would be someone, anyone who played. AGH! It was so fun.
Bree and I also took the opportunity to find a couple people to act as interview partners. Earlier we'd been offered the chance to be interviewed for the official Parliament documentary, later to be aired on PBS. PBS. As in the Public Broadcasting Service. WOW! I'll be Bree, Wes, Katie and I, plus a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Bahai, and a Methodist. I'm really excited. It'll be great. That'll be later today.

What else.
Conversations have been wonderful. I've attended a few sessions or workshops here and there, but mostly I've been enjoying wandering around the city and the parliament itself. In those times I have had the most rewarding connections to the myriad of humanities faces represented here this week. It is such a pleasure to be able to see everyone and, best of all, to share smiles. I've learned that the smile is a universal mode of communication, a pan-linguistic gesture.

Today, my intention is to further delve into my life, to really listen to my soul's impulses and to give proper respect the voices of my heart and mind. Also, I plan to take some time here in a bit to do some homework so I'm in integrity with that part of my life.

And it's raining in Melbourne!

Parliament Update

My first night in Melbourne was quite exciting. My flight arrived just after 10pm and, after clearing customs and retrieving my bags I hopped on a skybus heading from the airport into the city. By the time I got into the city it was after midnight.

Then I had to find my hostel.

The only trouble was, I'd totally forgotten to write down the address of the place. I knew what it looked like from photos on their website and I knew it was near the convention center. So I set off, asking directions and looking like a pack-mule.

I had my huge REI backpack, then my shoulder bag slung low in front and I was holding a black handbag with my arms through the handles in front. And I found after a few blocks that if I leaned just so, the weight distribution was far better and I could (somewhat) comfortably walk.

A 7-11 attendant sent me down one street, then I found a group of young folks hanging outside a hostel and they told me to go other entirely opposite direction. So I trekked.

I finally found the place and gratefully stepped in to secure my bed. It was alive with action, apparently it's quite the party central. There's a huge number of youth from all over the world and there are people attending the parliament that are of older generations too. I'd say they're pretty brave. It's kind of a wild place.

The New Thought delegations held a preconference the next day in which we were welcomed by a young aboriginal gentleman named Jeremy Donovan. The Agape Int'l ensemble, Erika Luckett and Lisa Ferraro all performed beautifully. Rev. Michael Beckwith, Rev. Roger Teele, Rev. Christian Sorensen and Dr. Kathy Hearn along with other representatives of the New Thought communities all attended and gave welcomes and prayers and the like.

The youth delegates in attendance were asked to put together a piece to share with the gathering outlining our vision for the philosophy in 25 years. The result, having been compiled by 13 New Thought youth in around 25 minutes is our "15-Minute Credo" and can be viewed at newthoughtnewsservice.blogspot.com.

It's been a few days since all of that and I've done and seen a great many things since. I've really enjoyed adventuring around the city with Megan Carlisle, Bree Alten, Suzie Wolds and others. I've been enjoying excellent food, coffee, drink, and the culture of Australia in Melbourne.

On Friday Megan, Bree and I went grocery shopping at the Queen Victoria's Market on the other side of town. We'd tried the two days before to go but were too late each time; it was a small victory just to have found it while it was open.

We bought a quick bite of cheese, bread, olives and juice to tide our hunger. There are hundreds of shops selling everything from cheese to cured meats in a bazaar/souk sort of fashion. There are display cases for each small shop displaying their products and you order from the attendants behind the counter. It was amazing.

After eating, we started shopping for some food to get us through the next couple of days. We ended up with a box full of various veggies and bags and bags of fruit and bread and such. Good stuff.

Yesterday I got to watch the Gyuto Monks of Tibet begin to create a sand mandala 50 paces from our impromptu news room. They've constructed an elevated platform upon which they have a penciled design drawn on a thick piece of wood. They have these ribbed metal cones into which they funnel variously coloured sands. Then, with another metal instrument they rub the ribs on the cone filled with sand and, as a result of the vibrations created by that interaction, sand is slowly coaxed out of a hole at the point of the ribbed cone. They direct the fall of sand into the intricate patterns with as much dexterity as a cake decorator.

I bought a beautiful blue blanket from the Monks' table and a few laminated bookmarks with quotes from the Dalai Lama, and then had my purchases blessed by the head monk. It was a wonderfully sacred experience to support the group financially and to have my contribution honored so.

Last night Megan, Katie, Bree, Susana, Megan's friend Nataliya, our new friend Rowan and I had an incredible meal at a Pay-It-Forward style restaurant in St. Kilda called Lentils As Anything. It was a really cool place, small, with little tables (and one to seat 7), a great creative vibe with incredibly delicious vegan food. We got a pumpkin curry, dahl, rice, two types of salads, and a lentil burger (BEST DISH). We were all pleasantly sated, it was just the right amount of food. And so much fun, to sit and eat with good friends and then decide what we could pay based on our resources and what we felt the food was worth. Yum, yum.

Today I've got some catching up to do. I'm feeling like I've not fulfilled my responsibilities to my contributors in the arena of reporting yet. I've not felt called to put anything together yet; but I'm about to start working on something. So that'll be up soon.

Until next time.

Parliament of the World's Religions, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Here I am, finally putting together a little something about my experiences so far. I've only just realized that I can use this blog to share my personal experiences in addition to my contributions to the New Thought News Service blog (www.newthoughtnewsservice.blogspot.com).

So. I came to Australia through New Zealand. For some reason it was less expensive to fly from LAX to NZ and then on to Melbourne. So I spent three days road trippin' through the ridiculously gorgeous country of New Zealand with my good friend Katie Dutcher. She got to drive, I being too young (still, but for another 6 months only) to drive a rental car. She adapted to the opposite-ness of their road rules quite well. Though we had a few close calls, a couple scares in which we were on the wrong side of the road. Nothing dangerous though. Even the indicator switch and the windshield wipers are on the opposite side. That was pretty funny, having the windshield wipers go off instead of the blinkers.
We were on the northern island, in the very north near Auckland on the Coromandel Peninsula. We spent the first night in a very small comfortable hostel with two German women, a guy from the UK and a woman from Portland, OR. That was in a medium sized, and very quiet town called Thames. We hadn't originally planned to stay in a hostel, we were supposed to meet Rev. Linda Reppond's foster son and his wife. But we never got a hold of them... Though we did have a great time trying to find them. We spent a good hour in United Video, a Blockbuster style chain video rental store. A few locals were hangin' with the employee. We had very little information to go by: two phone numbers, and a sparse geographical location (30 miles from here, twenty minutes south of here kinda thing). One phone number didn't work and she, our supposed host, never picked up the other one. Adventure.
Words fail in describing NZ's beauty. The flora is stunning; towering ferns in a deciduous forest. The landscape is extremely varied, densely forested mountains bordering beautiful coastlines give way to calmly rolling fertile pasture. So many cows. Wow.

I left NZ on the 1st, at 8pm. Watched "The Hurt Locker" and "500 Days of Summer" on the plane, both of which are very good and very different.
Arrived four hours later at 10pm. There's a time difference, I'm not crazy.
The Parliament opened on Thursday, in a three hour ceremony. It was beautiful and a little difficult to endure, to be completely honest.
I'll write more soon.