Arizona Tuscon 30th July 2006

Tuscon is huge city , by Byron Bay Australia standards!(if you have google earth go have a look ). I am staying on the east side of town and the mountains are in the north.From where I am sitting I can see the Catalina mountains which are covered in cloud today. We have had flash flooding and it has cooled things a bit .This morning I went to the local Catholic church with my hosts. The priest spoke about dealing with "overwhelming times" in our lives . A good message! It is interesting to see how people live here .The surroundings are so radically different than my usual home by the pacific ocean.
The desert here is full of cacti of all sizes and descriptions , some with red fruits , which local people make into jams.

Last night I was treated to some of the best local mexican cuisine at 'ROSA'S' , there was a line waiting to get seats and as I waited a woman said to me " have you been here before "? "No,I replied , I have only been in town 2 days " "Oh , she said , wow , good work , your only here for two days and you found this place !" That should tell you something about how good the food was!and the Margaritas! The whole place had amazing murals . When my camera is charged again ,( doing that right now ) I will be out snapping pics to show you. There is so much to show, the landscape , the mountains , the desert colours and shapes and even right where I am staying.
So stick around... check in and travel with me.

tomorrow , I will head to the University of Tuscon to the American Indian studies program . I am excited as this journey really takes off.

be well.

Travels so far

28TH JULY 2006
I am now in Tuscon Arizona( as of last night). I am going to back track a bit in this post. I arrived in California in the hottest heat wave on record. Trust me . Anyway , hot was hot. SO much so that a trip to the ocean was needed. Of course everyone in driving distance was headed the same way. ( see pic of the zillion cars on the headland!!) , so there was cars parked in every direction for miles and people walking. It was amazing , we found a space right next to the beach? then had a lovely day under shade . The water is icy here , when I first got to the shore , I was wondering how come noone much was actually IN the water . I soon found out , as hot as it was outside ( 108 -115) that day... the water was the exactly how I imagine it would be if a glacier had broken off.

I met some great guys kayaking and we were talking and of course one of them had a brother in Sydney and had been to Australia and knew where Byron Bay was.( which is near where I live ). I am sure everyone in this world is connected by no more distance than a handshake or two! a real Pity we don't realise this more and find ways to have true peace ! I saw this person on the side of the road with the peace sign!( see pic). There is a lot of this here in California , people out asking for peace.

later that day we headed to Spirit rock meditation centre/center!( Google to find out more ). This is a wonderful property and place near Woodacre , which is in MARIN county CA. That evening we stayed and about 200 people braved the heat to come and sit together in the Buddhist meditation practice of the Thai forest tradition. A simple practice called Vipassana ( watching ones thoughts and breath).Afterward Jack Kornfield , who has written many books ( google) spoke on the topic of generosity. It was wonderfully inspiring , JACK ALWAYS IS !

Jack illustrated his talk with many wonderful stories from around the world. Jack has so much to share from his personal experiences.He has many years of teaching and working in various ways as a counsellor/pyschologist.He told one story that really touched me from the "Ojibwe" ( I hope the spelling is correct ), people of Canada. It was a story demonstrating generosity and healing from Intergenerational suffering . I was very moved !I hope to be able to share this in the future, once I have contacted the story teller whose story it is, and asked for permission to pass it on.

The other photos area around spirit rock.

next post will be about Arizona. Bare with me as I learn to use this blog template and improve on it.

First day in San Francisco: 20th July 2006

Hello to everyone ! Here I am in San Fran. There is a heatwave here. Its 7pm and its still hot. I flew here from Sydney ( Australia's south East coast), and when I left it was a cold winter's day of 7 degrees c. I am heading from here to Tuscon Arizona ( University of Arizona, Native American Indian studies program )and expect it to be 45-50 degrees c( 110F )!

I will be posting more once there and adding pics and more info. Welome to those know me and for those who don't , thanks for logging on and tavelling with me!

I have been so fortunate to recieve a Fulbright award /fellowship. I hope this site will be a place for me to share my journey, my research and be a place to interact with others ! I hope it will also inspire you to aim for your own dreams.

ok , enough for now , more soon!