rest

Namaste,

Once upon a time there was a small village in Nepal. It rested on a mountain ridge between Kathmandu and Pokhara. Before the highway was built people walked from one city to another. It took seven days to reach the village from K, another two to P.

One day, everyday in the village a man carried a wicker basket full of rocks down a mountain to a construction site. A new kind of back breaking site with no connection to a spider's social network web.

He walked and walked. He dumped the rocks. He climbed the mountain and filled his basket.

In a noisy city filled with silent yellow temple candles a tired girl near her green vegetables and a lock fell asleep. She dreamed of education, clean water, friends and play in shadows. Where is her key?

Metta.

small village life

Namaste,

The incomplete yet fulfilled specific concrete hard red brick hammering echoed across a green Nepal valley.

It wasn't a hammer. It was a machete. A man chopped trees. His son trimmed branches. He severed sections into four-foot long pieces. His mother stacked them, wrapping them in bundles.

They collected wood all day. They rested at noon. They ate rice mixed with vegetables and potatoes. They shared expensive bananas. They drank water from a stream. They napped in shade. They carried the wood up mountains on their backs and home before dark.

Yellow eagles circled overhead. An infant cried in a brick home. Children in blue school uniforms wearing ties walked home along a red dirt road. Laughing.

They passed a small wooden tea shop overlooking a valley. A 20-year old girl worked at her sewing machine. She sewed large hearts into a white bed spread. The lace pillow cases with hearts were finished. Marriage bed dreams. 

Her parents had an arranged marriage. Her father is an electrician. Her younger sister ran away. She married a boy from another caste. He is a cook in a tourist town. They had a baby. Her older brother studies hotel management in the city. Another brother is in high school. 

I have a 1% chance of meeting a guy with a good heart, she said. 

Metta.

Give her a sewing machine and she'll change the world.

moon room

Namaste,

Nepalese people live in your pocket, ala small Donegal villages.

Get a room. Water and electricity are extra.
No electricity? No problem. Have more dark erotic secret sex. Produce more children.
They will light up your life.

Here is a bucket. Get in line.
Here is a pail, an empty water bottle. 
Why pay for plastic when you need water?

Elicit electric.

Here is your cage.
It has a wheel. Get on the wheel.
Begin running. Run forever.
How long is that?

Run until the green light comes on.
What does green mean?
It means stop running.
Rest.

Metta.

new constipation

Namaste,

40 million Nepalese ran into streets, paths, jungles, mountain villages this week.

National Crisis Averted! We're going to get a new constipation!

The 601 elected representatives waited (delayed) until the last minute to agree to extend their deadline on writing a new constipation another three months.

Wow! Hooray! Congratulations! They've had two years and couldn't get the job done. Now they have another ninety days. It's a beautiful mess. Squabble. Cluck-cluck. Quack-quack. 

As a foreign anthropologist said, "They act like teenagers. They waste their opportunities."

As a local teacher said, "They politicize everything here in Nepal. They're good at calling general strikes. They're good at not providing enough water or electricity. They want democracy but not the responsibilities." 

Everyone walks around with a morning radio attached to their ear swallowing the latest cynical political intrigue. A free hand carries a red plastic bucket of water from the community well. Everyone brushes their teeth outside. Hawking and spitting is popular. Accurate. 

Common life is simple. Home. Family, community inside small shops. Food, conversation, peace. 

Fishtail (Machapuchare) the sacred Shiva mountain weeps ice at 22,943 feet. It will never be climbed.

Metta.

Fishtail

Namaste,

Fishtail swims in blue
Alone
Cold steep snow regions
Dances along Annapurna spine
Laughing at human's meager
Attempts to summit

Metta.