Buttercupchappati Chronicles

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taxi truths

I was in a taxi recently, having a chat with the driver, as I do.

side note: taxi drivers have people hop in and out of their cars all day who mostly either complain or barely say hello. Talk to them, they love it.

Anyhow, this particular driver is Chinese and I was asking him where home is, which led to discussions of Quinghai, which led to questioning why I was in that part of the world.

I love how the universe unfolds.

Anyway, we get to the Tibetan medicine part and it all becomes very otherworldly. He has seemed a very pragmatic and practical man so far.

Ah, he says, really long pause. I love Tibetan medicine, it is very magical.

I could only agree, delighted that this person who I had never laid eyes on before felt the same way I do.

Taxi drivers are our gatekeepers to many many places, most of them unexpected. 

 This picture of me freezing in the (summer) snow on the grasslands near Mahlo was taken by my fabulous driver. We had a shocking trip from Mahlo to Xining that day. It snowed for hours, then rain and mud made the road nearly impossible once we got to a lower altitude. He was cheerful and kind the whole way.

The epic of Gesar of Ling

 

This is so precious.

You are listening to Terton Guru Gyaltsen speak, one of the most famous living bards of Tibet.

He is singing the Epic of King Gesar of Ling, the most famous epic tale of Tibet.

And precious to me especially because of this memory. Every day at 9.30 am, in the Tibetan hospital in Xining, no matter who is waiting, or how many patients are squeezed into his office waiting their turn, Aku Pema will reach over and pick up his little old radio, the button is broken and he has to use a pencil to tune it to the station, and then we all sit back and listen. To this.

Every day.

Marvellous.

Kokonor

One of my heart places, this is sad sad sad

 

 

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

a clutter of spiders

or a cluster, those are the preferred collective nouns for lots of spiders.

Too many spiders is my choice.

Truly, this place is spider central. Every window has  a large chunky corner dweller (outside thankfully), every time I pick up a magazine or a piece of paper, tiny ones scuttle in all directions. The bathroom alone seems to host at least five different types. What's going on?

It is thought that lots of spiders around your home is an indication that your living environment is healthy. Hmm. Not sold.

Especially not sold on the huge globe spider that has moved into the window on the back of the house, Shelob. She takes flies back to her pantry tucked under one leg. I'm not joking! I fully expect to come home and find a family member trussed up like Frodo.

The garden is an arachnid cosmos of its own, and I walk around in dilema, do I free the still alive struggling bugs and starve the spider, or leave it be and they work out their own Karma?

And don't be telling me about all the wonderful totemic stuff that spiders have, they have eight eyes to stare at you, how can this be good!

Trouble is that I won't kill them, so for a week now I have been going around making public service announcements warning them that hoses and window cleaning activity are coming and they should move on.

So long as they don't move in!

The Great Bell Chant

What a start for the day, for the new year, for everyone everywhere.

Such a beautiful gift for the eyes, the ears and the heart.

Enjoy.

 

 

The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) from R Smittenaar on Vimeo.

give give give

It doesn't matter how much we give away, there is always more to give, isn't that fabulous!

For 2011 I had  my "Year of Kiva", where I donated every month to the micro-finance organisation Kiva. You can find them here, and my blog post about it here.

I will keep going with Kiva, the money just recycles itself now, as it is re-paid I re-lend, it's a nice little ecosystem of aid.

But this coming year I have a new project in mind - the Jaipur Foot!

I first heard about it while in Tibet this year. Having dinner at a friends house who had a subscription to a Taiwanese TV channel, it was a rare treat to watch english language TV, and we watched a documentary about Devendra Raj Mehta, the force behind this amazing organisation.

Jaipur Foot is the largest prosthetic fitting organisation in the world. In India more than 10 million people have suffered the loss of a limb, yes, 10 million!

"Ram Chandra Sharma came to develop the Jaipur foot ... He had been invited in the 1960s, by Dr Sethi to teach art as therapy to polio victims at the SMS Hospital. 'Masterji' as he is widely known, is however a restless man prone to looking around for problems to solve or things to make. He watched amputees being fitted with impractical, expensive, imported artificial limbs."

The combination of the engineering mastery of Ram Chandra Sharma and the drive and passion to help people from Raj Mehta has led to the annual manufacture and distribution,  for free, of over 10,000 artificial limbs a year.

You can donate a foot for just $45. Imagine that, 45 bucks to get someone literally back on their feet and able to get their life happening again, able to earn an income again.

So that's my giving project for 2012, I feel it's an incredible blessing that I can just sit down at my computer whenever and give this gift to one of my brothers or sisters who need it so badly.

Have a wonderful, outrageously happy, and blessed 2012 everyone.
That's my plan!

 

bringing the light in

It's the Solstice, it's Hanukkah, it's Christmas, depending on the calendar it's sometimes Diwali.

All the light festivals converging on our blue planet as the light returns.

This year my vigil candle burns for:

Mum and Dad, I would not be here without them and they are dealing with big stuff

My friend Kay, she knows why

My children, my sons, always my babies, but now grown men out in this intense world we have created

For Tibet

and for His Holiness Dalai Lama who walks this planet like a living candle flame, shinning his light for all of us

My special soul friends, you are the air I breathe, my pulse, and my own army of light when I need it

My teachers, always

For anyone and everyone who needs to see a light in a window to find their way back, it's here

and for me, in hope for the new year, in healing for the past year.

 

I have shared this link before but its worth doing it again. Light a virtual candle at gratefulness.org

 

 

 

an antidote for Christmas madness

Close your eyes and imagine you are walking down the main street (the only big street) of Mahlo.

It's cold, really cold, really you-can't-believe-it cold, and the wind is kinda fierce.

Everyone is wrapped up in their chubas, with their faces covered so you have to picture the smiles underneath.

Actually you know they are smiling - you don't have to imagine.

Everyone wants to give you hot hot hot tea, with butter in it.

You wish you had felt boots too.

Even the yaks look cold, especially when they have snow on them. But its okay because this is possibly the most beautiful place in the world.

And peaceful.

Well, don't know about you, but I feel better.

 

 

Goodbye Russell Hoban

Oh my, the sad news is that Russell Hoban has left us. The good news is that he leaves some truly wonderful books behind.

"Bread and Jam For Frances" was one of my favourite books as a small girl, I remember constantly getting it out of the reading trolley. There was great joy in buying it to read to my own boys when they came along.

One of the best things about being a mother is that you get to re-connect with your childhood books again. It was one I had to really hunt for at the time, the thrill of a book chase!

Frances is every little girl to me (sorry boys - I can only speak from my own experience) who finds that she can chose, but learning about choice and changing your choices is good too. The illustrations are gentle, friendly and charming. Who wouldn't love this little badger! Although, I do have a badger thing I must confess.

His most widely acclaimed adult book "Riddley Walker" gave me a headache, I found it nearly impossible to read stylistically. I should have another bash at it one day. A friend read it, and laughed all the way through!

You can read the New York Times obituary here.

I'll have to go and get it off the shelf and read it to myself tonight in the absence of small people to cuddle with and read to.