Holiday Cheer

Surrounded by music and light from candles that have been passed around to illuminate this perfect night. The spirit of Christmas is certainly present here, I can feel the joy of love. Its the silence and stillness within the hustle and bustle of life that renews my soul time and time again. What magic this moment brings to me. The candle I hold spilling light on to this page as if knowing these words want to be written. Sublime life, sharing of light. Feeding the flame and burning brightly in this night. Effortlessly existing. The beautiful choir singing songs that bring smiles and movement to everyone. The stars in the sky reflected in the candles as the light bounces from happy face to happy face. To be experiencing harmony this holiday season is the best gift I have ever received. This is what Christmas time is about; peace, kindness and love for our families and friends. I send all of this majesty to you.

the seer is the sweeper

Yesterday I spent my day walking through the townships of Kitwe; the second largest city in Zambia. The townships are unplanned settlements comprising of grass thatched roofed huts and clay shacks. Children run around and it seems no adults are around to care for them. Pit latrines 3 ft from drinking water sources, garbage and sewage litter the dirt paths that define the community. The people must have been chosen to endure because I am not sure that I could survive the way they do. As I walked through the townships it was completely surreal for me. I was seeing everything as another person other than Emily because I have never imagined anything like it before. It was a bizarre sense of other worldliness because I was never sure if I was seeing the past, present or future. Perhaps that it is difficult to comprehend, but when you see people existing with nothing you wonder what world you are in.

To paint a picture for you-imagine huts in the midst of trees, holes in the ground for toilets, children running around naked, no infrastructure, chickens running around randomly, small markets selling whatever can be sold, dirty bodies, a smell of rubbish in the air, sweat dripping, women drawing water from wells and carrying it back to their homes on their head; Survival. My friends, there exists suffering in this world, there exists true lack, I came face to face with extreme poverty beyond my wildest dreams, and it set me free.

When I was in this midst of these beautiful faces that live everyday without demanding why they have been dealt this hand I saw my own ignorance and was transcended to a place of nothingness, where I was shown that life exists in moments and what matters is what you chose to do with those precious moments.

Yesterday I saw people laughing, playing soccer, children following me around out of sheer curiosity, small markets selling tomatoes and fish; people making the most of what they have, not sitting around wondering why, not feeling depressed. Life happens whether we like it or not, whether we are where we want to be or not. It goes on, and to embrace time is something Africa is showing me in a huge way.

Without me even noticing I was released from thought and delivered into a state of expansive space of nothing and there I find everything; Simplicity, humor, compassion and tranquility.

If not for yourself then for the millions of people without in this world, create the place you wish to be in if you have the ability to do so, and I believe we all have that ability. I believe that each and everyday should be used as a blank canvas for creating something good. We are never unable until we tell ourselves we are. There are no limitations except the ones we self-impose.

The delicious flavor of freedom pervades my senses. Allow it to find yours.

For Us

1.A Coursing River
2.Turbidity
3.Abject poverty, abject wealth
4.No distractions from truth
5.Clarity

I would like to think of myself as a coursing river; flowing from the infinite all the while making my way back to the infinite. Perhaps being temporarily removed from a developing country and implanted into a developing one I am able to see two different ways in which I saw and now see the world. There are so many distractions to occupy ones time with when we all we know is the desire to accumulate. As North Americans we want so much, 2.5 children, a house, cottage, 2 cars and a garage, manicured lawns, and lots of money. With all of these distractions we lose something, and our lives become turbid and we fail to see the truth of who we are and why we are here.

In Zambia, at any one time I am within miles unless in communities who have n-o-t-h-i-n-g they have quite literally no things. They have the cloths on their backs and the shoes on their feet-if-they are wearing any. I see great wealth here as well, Mercedes bends, SUVs, million dollar mansions, designer boutiques. I float around somewhere between trying to absorb this world of stark contrast, and I see the existence of extremes everyday. There are no distractions here. Life is so simple. You live each day. Plans are not made because you can never predict what next week will bring. I feel no need to want anything. I only want this freedom to persist for the rest of my life. Freedom from the desire to accumulate anything but love.

For Us I wish the shedding of the skins of material desires revealing the simplicity and splendor of being. In our experiencing life I wish us to flow with little resistance and great joy as we make our way home.

Limping in Lusaka

I am off work for a week due to Cellulitis which is an inflammation of the connective tissue underlying the skin, that can be caused by a bacterial infection. In my situation it has developed in my foot because of a series of blisters from all of the walking in the heat. I noticed my foot swelling and was unable to walk yesterday so I went to the clinic and began an antibiotic iv, oral antibiotics and pain killers. I have to go to the clinic twice a day for the next week for the iv. It has been slightly unnerving for me, being so far from home and Canadian medical facilities, but everything seems to be under control and I am being well cared for. When the doctor was setting up my first iv he thought it was quite lucky for me to be experiencing a tropical infection in Africa. He figures not all my friends will get to have to same situation. His perspective made me laugh, But when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. You can always find a silver lining if you are open to observing your habits and reactions to life's adversities. Despite my limp, sore arm and pain killer induced daze I am great and have an entire week to read, write, and recuperate.

Good Luck finding the silver linings in your rain clouds.