Presentation: Thursday, July 28th at 7:00 PM
Slide show and brief talk at Midwest Energy Community Room in Atwood
What is it about: December 1st, 2010, I left for a 3 1/2 month journey through Indonesia. I started in Kuala Lumpur in a hostel and visited a Chinese Medical clinic that helped me quickly recover from jet lag and 40 hours of travel. I went to the most visited Hindu Shrine outside India, the oldest rain forest on the earth, the tea growing highlands of Malaysia and eventually to Northern Sumatra where I trekked through original forest looking for wild Orang Utan. Eventually, I flew to Northern Borneo for more trekking, snorkeled off the coast of Borneo, flew to Sulawesi where I snorkeled with sharks, turtles, sea snakes, amazing coral and amazing fish. I stayed in remote island cabins, made it Flores and the Island of Komodo (home of the dragon) and to Bali where I connected with local healers, visited coffee country and sampled Kopi Luwak coffee. My last stop was Singapore for a quick stop over before flying home March 15. I’m sorting through nearly 8,000 photo’s to make slide show for our evening together. I hope to see you there!
Video above…my initial plan
Initially, I was going to put together a slide show of my trip to Indonesia. As I talked with a few more people and they asked questions about the trip, how it came together, what it takes, I realized I wanted to do a little more than simply share photo’s. This was a “trip of a lifetime”. I’ve had other “trips of a lifetime”, this was the most recent. So, how do you do it?
I’m clear on my values and decided long ago I wanted to have a large life, lots of experiences and to focus on living NOW. I know a lot of people waiting…for retirement; when the time is right; when the kids are gone; for __________ (fill in the blank).
If you aren’t living now, celebrating the small joys in life today, expressing the life that flows through you, there is no magic switch that flips at retirement and makes all things you’ve avoided suddenly possible.
I’ve had my own version of a “bucket list” long before the movie came out. The video clip on “joy” reflects the kind of quotes and ideas I like and do my best to live in alignment with. I’m unable to post the movie clip here but follow this link if you would like to see it:
The Bucket List: Two Questions
Buried deep within life activities is life itself. I’ve read a lot of stories about people who wake up one day, look back on their life and wonder: “I’ve given my entire life to be the person I am today and living the life I’m living today. Was it worth it?” I hope so!
I’ve posted this before but wanted to post it here again. Remember the scene from the movie “Hook” where he buried himself so deep, his boys couldn’t find him. It took some work but finally, they found “Peter” buried deep inside the man.
There You Are Peter
When I saw “The Power of Myth” interview with Joseph Campbell, I was struck by his message about “following your bliss”. I’ve been looking for that path since and refining my life to be as close to it as possible. Here’s the quote:
Moyer: Do you ever have the sense of… being helped by hidden hands?
Campbell: “All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time — namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
That’s the real journey!
Here are a few photo’s from my trip.
Indonesia Trip Photo’s