Joy

Greetings,

A simple joy is being in Hanoi savoring delicious Chinese tea.

I am liberated from tolerating the tyranny at a private Catholic school in Jakarta. I completed my penance. A beautiful universe.

It feels fantastic to be back in the University of the Street. So it goes.

Metta.

Brown moth

It was waiting on a bedroom wall. A Navajo cloth, gently.

It walks up a fold and rests. Big black eyes, soft brown speckled wings.

Slowly carry it out of the room, across bamboo floor mats toward night, into an open garden under half moon, shadowed morning glories, papayas trimmed in darkness.

The moth feels this air, a sound of humming night below the surface, adjusts its antenna and lifts off into a shadow, silent wing flight free.

Metta.

Zeynep - Wonder Kid

Once upon a time there was a traveling teacher and he left Asia Minor after a year of exploring and returned to Southeast Asia.

He began helping 4th graders. As a student he was making new friends and sharing on another very small part of the spinning planet filled with orchids and astonishing butterflies. Ah, the joys of travel, teaching and taking risks!

Meanwhile, back in Bursa, Turnkey, a magical place on a border between Asia and Europe, at the Western end of the Silk Road, Zeynep is a precocious 5-year old.

The front of her t-shirt reads, "Nobody's perfect." 
The back reads, "I am Nobody."

She pointed around her restaurant and whispered across the table.

"See these adults? Why do they look so sad and/or angry? Because, when they were young, they were punished for dreaming."

"Yes, fear is a real imaginary way with them, this perpetual adolescence."

"And I'll tell you another thing," said Zeynep. "I experience joy through writing, painting, drawing, singing and dancing."

"Yes," I whispered, "I am happy we met here. You are my best friend in the world. I trust you and love you." We shared a hug and dissolved into tear reflected light.

We are all born free

We are all born free is a new children's picture book celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Synopsis:
We are all born free is an outstanding and beautiful picture book celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Artists and illustrators from all over the world offer their personal interpretation of the Articles, making them easy to understand for young readers. Children aged 6 and over will take great pleasure in discovering an exceptional illustration as well as a fundamental right on every page they turn.

Published by Frances Lincoln in association with Amnesty International, with forewords by David Tennant, who describes this collection as a 'beautiful book' in which 'you’ll find thirty rules for the world to live by' and John Boyne, for whom this book 'might be the most important one that you ever own.' 

We Are All Born Free has already been translated into more than 30 languages and sold over 200,000 copies.  more>>

Metta.