Today’s will be a short collection of people I met this morning.
The first person is a British gentlemen who lived in Austria a greater part of his 42 years. He has always been a practical person . In his early years he had an extremely successful photography business and made lots of money. Then he realized that had attained his goal but it did not bring him the happiness that he believed it would. He became in touch with his strong healing impulses and trained as an acupuncturist. During the process of assisting others in becoming whole he became while himself. He , the woman I described yesterday and me had a very two hour animated conversation on healing with the body ,mind and spirit.We also touched upon that fact that fear is underneath all anger except in rare cases of just anger.
I very much enjoyed listening to him speak so lucidly in his clear British accent. Thirty -five years experience and training in body/mind therapy gave me a different perspective on some topics so when he would propose a simple theory I would point out that indeed it was much more complex than he proposed.
He has made his home here in Chiang Mai for the moment and appears to be very happy with his choice. It’s difficult to stay grumpy long about anything in paradise if one has any impulse at all towards happiness. The conversation indeed hit upon the concept of Happiness. The gentleman stated he didn’t believe in happiness , it could not be sustained long and perhaps contentment might be a better goal. The woman replied that ,”happiness”is indeed our natural state and she remembered how happy she was as a child and continued to be happy because ,”Happiness”is indeed a choice. We ended up all agreeing on that.
I first came across that concept -so simple indeed-that we seem to over look it-that happiness is indeed a choice through the works of Dr. Robert Holden, the British clinical psychologist. Robert is the author of “The Happiness Project and Success Intelligence as well as his latest book,”Shift Happens”.
The other two were brief but meaningful encounters.
The first was a young German woman that I had been admiring at Satava . She was with a group of people and I thought what a lovely young lady. As I was walking along the road , I met her again. She was all dress up with a lovely dress , a set of pearls hung tastefully around her neck. She looked at me and said,”do you live around here”. At first , I didn’t place her as she was out of her usual casual attire , but it suddenly hit me that this was indeed the young lady who I had admired from afar. I can’t remember if we connected at the restaurant or not as it is the kind of place that you might indeed receive a warm greeting from someone and never see them again. The friendliness come from the fact that everyone going there attempts to eat healthy, does yoga or is practicing or studying some type of healing art.
I pointed to a huge white building nearby and told her I had been living there since Nov. 30th. and would leave in April.She told me that she was working nearby and was living in Chiang Mai full time. She was on her way to work now so we said goodbye and parted ways.
The next person is a young Korean woman -my next door neighbor in 206. One day we left our rooms at the same time. Since I’m down the hall from me she didn’t see me.
That is how I got to know she was my neighbor. Then I have seen her numerous times on the street and one other time leaving the building. Each time she was wearing huge headphones so I was unable to get her attention.
Today, however, she left the building without her bulky headphones on. I called out,Konnichi wa as I thought she was Japanese. She looked up at me and we began a conversation. She was Korean and not Japanese she told me. She was on her way to the Y.M.C. A. to study Thai language. Her dream was to go to Canada to study English. I told her that I could help her with this as I have assisted others in studying in E.S.L. in Toronto. As we past the Y.M.C. A. we did a high five and she hurried off to