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Timothy M. Leonard's books on Goodreads
A Century Is Nothing A Century Is Nothing
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The Language Company The Language Company
ratings: 2 (avg rating 5.00)

Subject to Change Subject to Change
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Ice girl in Banlung Ice girl in Banlung
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Finch's Cage Finch's Cage
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Entries in travel (552)

Friday
Jan162015

Your life is a work of art

Editor's note: Chapter 1 excerpt. The Language Company. Enjoy the ride.

Carpe Diem in Ankara, said a reliable narrator, Pluck the day when it is ripe.

Lucky Foot explored a gleaming upscale mercantile atrium filled with bald silver female dummies fronted by glass. Mirrors reflected screaming bored housewives paroled for good behavior pushing pram infants.

He happened into a store with Roman, Ottoman, Egyptian and Middle Aged chess sets - game of Kings. Checkmate, said Mother Death, Beauty’s mother, Life is a chess game of experiences we get to play.

Black jazz statues played sax, trumpet, clarinet, keyboards, drums, and bass. Some of My Favorite Things, said John Coltrane. Blow your cool heart out.

“Good morning. Do you need something?” said the owner.

“Namaste. I salute the light within you. I seek to help others end suffering and misery.”

“Is it a way, a path?”

“It’s the nature of absolute emptiness with compassion. Ultimate truth. Reality.”

“What’s its form? Form an answer. Fill in your form. We live in a world of forms. It’s not the answers we need to know it’s the quest-ions we discover. Don’t be afraid to be confused. Remain curious. Trust authentic fragments. Follow your heart. Grow from it. Anything is possible when you risk everything. Stay open to your true nature as a lotus grows from mud. Form is emptiness and vice a verisimilitude. Would you like some tea?”

“Yes please. The quest-ion is the answer. Practice allows everything to wake you up. When you have taken the impossible into your calculations its possibilities become endless.”

“Today is good day to die. Meditate on your death. Celebrate your journey.” He pushed a buzzer. “Someone will bring tea.”

“Thanks. I like establishing impermanent relationships with compassion, trust, generosity and empathy.”

“You’re a dreamer dreaming the impossible dream. Are your needs being met? I suggest you need more direct immediate experience, observation and imagination. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Words escaping the tyranny of memories composed a jazz poem.

Kind of Blue, 1959 by Miles Davis. Modality.

 “Everything I do is an experiment. Traveling meets my genetic needs. I love weird. It’s a long strange beautiful trip. Life is an amazing beautiful messy test. It gives us the test first and lessons later. In my life I become we: many people. We face opportunities and challenges. We bring luck to people like you. People we meet and never see again. It’s ephemeral. We help strangers help themselves through levels of suffering, hardship, deprivation, letting go and developing courage. 

"Becoming. Throw in passion desire thirst and existential bliss with humor. Humor is the key. No shame, guilt or humiliation. No regret or fear. The day after tomorrow belongs to me. I am a dreamer with controlled imagination. I see you have knives. I need one to cut through fear and ignorance.”

 “Fear is blissful ignorance. Doubt is healthy. Uncertainty is necessary to grow. Travel allows you deeper penetration. Travel makes you. There are not many things you need to remember during your visit to Earth. Please have a look-see.”

 “Our life is a work of art and life imitates art. Art is easy. Life is difficult. Clouds know me by now.”

“You don’t say.”

A cabinet displayed Swiss Army knives with cool tools for cool fools. 

The Language Company

Wednesday
Jan072015

new direction

Keep staring. I might do a trick.

Three days in BK on a visa run. 

Have you ever seen a visa run?

They are fast.

Escaping predators. Visa eaters are hungry. 

Then, the slow steady ten hour train from Yangon to eastern Mawlamyine in Mon State. Orwell served as a policeman here when he wrote "Shooting an Elephant."

Original rock and roll, up and down, see-saw, rolling rusty stock. Bliss.

Ride the rails.

Delightful flat farmland, harvests, fields, rice paddies shimmer green, white oxen pulling wooden carts loaded with hay, elevations, golden pagodas, rivers. 

A slow gentle rhythm. Choo-choo.

Wednesday
Nov262014

Circle Train

The Circle Train goes around Yangon. 

$1 - three hours.

Kindness of strangers - ticket man points out track.

Wait there. The train is red. Thank you.

Slow, steady, easy smiles.

Ride the rails. Move.

Families on a Sunday picnic with straw mats and bags - food, beverages.

Wide eyed kids hang out windows watching people, places, things.

Old cement structures, time warp - long ago. 

Roll past corregated heaven, bamboo homes, rice paddies.

Shy smiles, hey it's a stranger!

Let's have an adventure.


Wednesday
Nov122014

Myanmar

Yes. Make it new day by day make it new.

New country, renewal since Mandalay 1.5 years back.

New city - Yangon, traffic jams, new living space on the 8th floor - climbing up flights of cement stairs staring at your feet, walk softly, 114 steps. Exactly. Reminds you of narrow Chinese neighborhood flats, dwellings. Street talk. Habitats for humanity.

Flocks of crows welcome you. I salute the sun.

Caw, caw, swivel black eyes scanning the universe. Wing music.

New language company of educators from global births. Gifted transient masters of their destiny.

Soft gentle light staff. Land of smiles.

Process new sensations.


Friday
Oct312014

Return to Burma

Happy Halloween!

It's the perfect day to return to Burma. Yes.

Get on your magic broom. Lift off, join clouds. 

They should know you by now.

You were in Mandalay spring 2013. Montessori. 

Now it's Yangon. Sweet culinary and spiritual bliss.

Help others develop courage. Explore the magical human condition.