Tag Archives: Richard Gannaway

Suaraha; Where Instead of Having a Bicycle or a Car, You Have an Elephant! Day Three, AO in Nepal

No sleep for me last night.  Too much to do. So much to consider.  Yep, the bank froze my debit card seeing 5 people eating out in Suaraha, took care of that …again.  Yep, made sure that there was a new hotel reservation for Kathmandu, that the interview with the “Bee Acupuncturist” was in fact happening (an acupuncturist that uses bee stings as his needles) and answered the inevitable emails that come in about 4am every morning.  That’s before my feet swing out of bed,

I don’t care about sleeping. I think most people who find themselves at the apex of their creative center feel this way.  We forget to shower, eat…take out the trash.   It is like waiting for a child to be born.  While the Team is in Nepal, I am simply lit up like a firecracker.  It is one thing to achieve a goal:  Send 5 wonderful young people to Nepal as ambassadors for AOMUSIC and come back with recordings of children singing as well as unparalleled footage of this amazing process.  But it is what happens in between the goal and the outcome that defines the creative process.

Creating is the art of allowing.  Allowing the picture to come into focus without pushing, allowing for interruptions to the plan to reveal the REAL plan.  Allowing for magic to break in unexpectedly and change every person involved, which then immediately changes the outcome. Rain, food issues, cultural differences, language, altitude all are the ingredients for surprises, one after the other.   This is why I don’t mind loosing sleep.  This is why I have put my life in alignment with AO Foundation International:  Because I am guaranteed to be allowed to unfold, just like the process of making this film and meeting these families, children and the country of Nepal.

So, while I was still awake at 5:30 this morning, this email came in from my daughter Jessie.  Internet is difficult in Nepal and as the team writes each sentence they have to constantly re-boot, re-fresh, wait and shut down.  Does not make following thoughts very easy.  But it is the spirit that blazes bright in every email.

From Jessie:

“And it is a late late night for me….Today was like breathing.  It was our second and last day with the children at Shree Little Star School. As wonderful and amazing as they were, I am even more excited about the days to come and the future footage I will take, as we just got invited to come back to Kathmandu to work with a group of children in an Orphanage there, as well as with a renowned musician from Nepal.  Raj took only myself over to Mushard Village to quickly meet the new children here in Suaraha and speak to them about coming in the morning to record them.

Although the streets were muddy and the village small and poverty stricken. I have never experienced such radiating light, love and laughter like that from children.  I was only there maybe less then five minutes and I left with them knowing my name and chasing after me when we left on the Mo-ped. I have never felt happier and more up-lifted in  my life.  This was after a morning of slowly drifting down the Rapti River in a canoe with Josh and Rob doing yoga. We watched an elephant and her baby cross  the river.  A magical day of footage and pure excitement. Things are unfolding so fast and so beautifully, I can only assume I am walking a path that I have been searching for my whole life.”

Sigh.

So, the Team is working today with a new group of younger children and then packing to go to Kathmandu in the morning.  This was an unexpected new offering that happens all of the time with AOMUSIC.  Once people hear the music, doors open to wonderful new introductions to communities and children.  It is our firm belief to follow the gifts we are given and make those contacts, take the treks and be open hearted, open handed and supportive of the families and children contributing to our albums.  So a new adventure begins.

Our third Team member was also a gift.  I had never met Karan Sharma, but through an introduction to Marc Pingry Production a light bulb went off in Marc’s head as we were having dinner in Seattle.  “Karan…you must bring Karan Sharma with you”, said Marc.

Marc proceeded to share about this young man whose father is Romesh Sharma, an Indian actor, producer and director in Bollywood.  Karan has acted, and worked on a documentary series called  “Fantastic Festivals of the World”. He brings a creative eye, enthusiasm, great ideas and heart to the AO Project in Nepal and is working with a larger camera to film the team teaching children and the story of the team itself.  Here is a little on Karan.

Karan currently is living in India, and has studied International Business and Management Studies at the European Business School London. He is fluent in English and Hindi, and can speak some French.  Karan has also acted and we are excited to work with him in the future on our larger documentary that will trek to the Caves of Maratika and to a monastery near Everest.  He is a gem!

Fantastic Festivals of the World

Season One & Now Season Two   People around the world know how to have fun!The “Fantastic Festivals of the World” Series features the best, most exotic, bizarre and unique of these celebrations!  This exciting and colorful HDTV series can be seen currently on the Discovery HD Theater (www.dhd.discovery.com) in the USA on Wednesdays at 8 pm and 11 pm PST. the documentary was done by Marc Pingry Productions.  www.youtube.com/pingryhdtv

So, when Karan came enthusiastically onboard I thought our team was complete.  Until one night I woke up and saw a picture in my mind of a young man I barely knew and somehow understood that for some reason, Josh Massad, I think that was his name, had to be part of our team also.  I had no Idea why, but in the next few days I found him in Goa, India and found out why I had had a vision of him that night.   Tomorrow I want to introduce you to the teams own “Yoda”.  Josh Massad.  Our fourth team member.

Diary of a Dream: Day Two in Chitwan, Nepal.

     

So I dream all night about elephants and mountain tops eager to get up and see if there are emails in my inbox from the Team in Nepal.  Their late night musings, concerns or questions come in about 6am at my house and I am off and running.

And, as I promised, I am going to profile another member of the team who wrote a piece this morning that says it all.  I need not say another word except:

Rob Lenfesty is from Asheville, North Carolina and is the person standing in for Richard Gannaway and teaching the children music.  This is his first time working with AO and I am certain it will not be the last time.

 

Rob is part of an intentional community in Asheville, a yoga teacher, slackline teacher (get to know about this if you do not already know), a composer, musician and magic with children.  Here is what he shares with you from the heart of Nepal”

 

“Since arriving here we have set some cultural experiential goals. One for me has been to ride an elephant; and in the spirit of fun and creativity do some yoga asana on its back.  We had spoken of this often; and when an elephant came down the hill next to where Josh and I sat eating breakfast I commented;

“I wish they didn’t all have those boxes on their backs (referring to

the wooden platform adorning all elephants we have thus far seen)

because it will make it difficult to do any yoga on one.”

Half joking and yet, right in that moment, the elephant got to its knees and the owner dropped down and began removing the box off of its back.  I decided to get a closer look and walked down there. “Elephant shower?,” the mahout (elephant keeper) asked me, gesturing to the elephant’s back and the river.

With a broad smile on my face I crawled up and there I was, riding bareback on an elephant mere seconds after musing about it.  We went into the water and the elephant began sucking water into its trunk and drenching me on its back.  The day was already hot and the water was refreshing.  Another blessing barely in disguise; by standing in a couple of feet of water the elephant afforded me the opportunity to safely try fun things like headstands on his back.  Elephant Yoga!

A few times I splashed down into the water but was able to get back up and try again.  Afterwards I was able to just connect to the beautiful and intelligent creature before he left the river.  One goal manifested, and beautifully!

I feel that the “child-like” compulsion to play and try new things is the key to refreshing and invigorating the human spirit.  Such play awakens the divine inside of us; we glow with the pure joy of living and the happiness that is derived from new experiences and magical opportunities realized.  It was with this playful and activated spirit that we piled up in the truck and drove to the school to meet the kids who are to be the heart of this journey.

We arrive at the school to find a group of well-behaved enthusiastic children sitting behind their tall wooden desks, eager to learn.  It did not take but a few moments for us to break the ice with some perfectly goofy vocal exercises and games to establish a playful vibe for this experience.

It was now in this moment that the true alchemy of this group of AOMusic ambassadors really became apparent.  While I prepared the materials to teach the kids the song we were going to record them singing, as well as confer with the principle and school officials to discuss logistics, Josh continued to engage the kids with fun games and exercises that served the multifaceted purposes of play, exercising musical awareness and exercising singing voices.  We wrote the song on the whiteboard and practiced each syllable and then the song.  The kids picked it up immediately.

I was astounded by how quickly they got it.  After a few more games we brought them outside and got a recording of them singing as a group underneath a mango tree in the schools courtyard.  I then proceeded to begin my individual recordings while Josh continued to pull engaging games out of thin air to keep the kids delighted and inspired.

When we finally stopped for lunch I decided to bring out my slackline to see how the kids enjoyed it.  Slackline is a piece of flat one inch wide webbing that you place between two trees and then practice balancing on.  I teach with the Yogaslackers, a group who are dedicated to bringing this wonderful practice to the world in an easy to learn format that celebrates the diversity of opportunities this simple tool provides.  In a class what we establish are the basic poses of an ever-growing list of yoga asana that we have applied to the slackline and the flows that move between them.

I set up the line and the kids all gathered ‘round.  I showed them the basic knee balance that we first teach and then each kid who wanted to (and some teachers too!) gave it a shot.  As each approached the line everyone would cheer their name and clap enthusiastically for even small victories from each person.  I did a quick demo of what is possible and then fluidly returned to recording the children individually.   Josh found even more games and musical adventures to take the kids on in the mean time.

The film and photo crew of Jessie, Karan and Baldev continued to find creative ways to shoot the recordings and orchestrate shots throughout the session.  The fact they have been doing so since we arrived in Kathmandu; capturing each inspired moment along the way with ease.  Thus we made sure the light was perfect and recorded the kids as they sung; eyes beaming at the fancy cameras, boom stand and recording equipment surrounding them.  Even for those of us familiar with all of this equipment it was surreal.

I can only imagine the wonder of it all for these kids out in the Nepalese countryside.  In all we were hoping to keep the kids captivated for an hour, at most an hour and a half.  After all, today was a special day of holiday and we knew they would want to get out and enjoy it.  Except we were underestimating ourselves as well as the kids.  For four hours we not only kept the kids captivated and entertained, but they were hungry for more.  They wanted us to stay and continue to play and record.  To reiterate with enthusiasm; Josh Massad stepped up in a beautiful way.  He had the kids singing tabla rhythms and had brought an arsenal of fun instruments for them to play.  Entertained, entrained and educated all at the same time.  And wanting more to boot.

Because of how musically engaged and fun-loving the experience was for the kids, by the time they reached me for their individual session they were fully loose, activated and vocally warmed up for the experience.  When we finally left the children were beaming.  I beamed at my crew.  I could not have been blessed with a more alchemically perfect combination of people to create this magical experience with.

Rob Lenfestey,        Celebrate Life.

Tomorrow is another day, and I will finally introduce you to a young man from Mumbai who is filming in Panasonic HD for our larger documentary:  Karan Sharma.  And does he have a wonderful story.

 

 

Daily Diary: AOMusic in Nepal: Day One. Following the Dream.

First Day in Chitwan, Nepal  August 19, 2012:  AOMUSIC Arrives

When I wake up I look at the clock these days and do my math.  Ok.  It is 8am here in Washington and it is just after suppertime in Nepal. “Hope they don’t drink the water”, I ponder. What is the team doing on their first day of having gotten to Chitwan?  Then, I get a note from my daughter Jessie who is feeling the time change and cannot sleep.  My luck.  I get to hear a bit about their travels.  Her email opens with:

“Good morning to you from the middle of the Chitwan National Park where elephants roam in the grasses across the water that we see from our balcony. Beautiful!  We start with the kids at 11am tomorrow morning and are very excited.”

After meeting for the first time in Kathmandu Airport, having dinner together and getting to know one another before they get on a bus the next morning, everyone is wired.  The bus is a long journey on tiny cliff sized roads but they got there safe and sound and are now settled into their hotel overlooking the only National Park in Nepal.  A feast for the eyes.

So, tomorrow the crew meets the children and start both recording and filming, gets to know the village after taking a jeep ride from the Hotel and begins interviews with families.

I also got an email that was very thought provoking from the team.  I sent contracts to each of the people going.  You know.  Those legal papers to cover everyone’s asses just in case a rogue elephant eats the camera.  They were modest agreements but they lacked something in keeping with the spirit of this journey.  This is what I heard from the Team which was written by my daughter:

“We need to discuss the contracts.  We feel the wording is stern and of a square tone, not promoting the creative and inspirational intentions we are creating. The contract doesn’t reflect the project! it feels harsh and slightly aggressive.  It just doesn’t hold up to the energetic integrity of the project.  My intuition is that it doesn’t feel right.  The magic will be subdued with a lingering unenthusiastic written contract. Kinda like not wanting to put something out into the universe that is not consistent with the intention.  Law of attraction type deal”.

And this is my daughter.   Waking me up to making sure I am calling in the energy I want for this project.  I am so proud of her. Maybe I just graduated from parenting school.

So, I am letting you get to know the four major people on our AO team and what better way to start but by introducing my daughter, Jessie Felix.  I will write more tomorrow and introduce Karan Sharma from India.

And!  No one has said a thing about rain!  Yeah.

So, for our first world traveler and adventurer:  Jessie Felix.  Jessie is our still photographer, one of our videographers as well as the one who will do most of the interviewing and carry the purse strings.  She is amazing if I may say so myself….especially to travel with three men she does not really know.  Here is what Jess says about herself.

 

“At 26 I have driven to the four corners of the U.S., been to forty-eight states and traveled to five countries outside of the United States.  I have lived at 39 addresses and counting. I am an artist, a muse, and a nomad. I do not dare sit still as life grows all around waiting to be seen. I have attended six colleges in six different states and walked away learning to trust my intuition and to follow my heart that leads my feet forward.

I have experienced loss, tragedy, and devastation, come close to death, pulled myself out from the depths of hell. I have experienced broken hearts, disappointment, rejections, criticism, and failure. I have witnessed how love can transform and break someone, how death can be immobilizing, that life is a blessing and a curse. And what I now know is that nothing is truly predictable and everything can change in less than a heartbeat.

Happy tears do exist. The best ones fall from your face with complete perfection, and if you can face yourself in a mirror you can face anything. I have witnessed miracles and mysteries and been completely amazed by the most insignificant things. I try to capture what others may not see. I let my emotions come through the lens and immortalize.”

Please visit her at www.jessiefelix.wordpress.com

From Tulsa to Kathmandu

 

I left for my “Year as a Gypsy” on September 2, 2011.  As that year comes to a close my life has opened.  By shedding my beliefs about what I “thought” might make me happy in life and asking a new question about “what would bring me joy”, I made some bold new moves.  After selling most of my belongings, letting go of my house, my man, my dog and my attachment to any outcome, I packed my car and drove off.  First stop, Asheville, North Carolina.

My blog, www.the-gypsy-life.com has chronicled what can only be described as a “surprising” year.  I had thoughts of writing full time, landed a screenplay writing job, re-invented myself with a new website www.mayalunachristobel.com and felt the stars aligning in what I believed was my destiny.  And then I learned a very important saying first hand and right between the eyes:  “How do you make the Gods laugh?  By telling them your plans”.  It was simply a few weeks into my adventure that I threw the blueprints out and adopted the only thing I knew to do:  Navigate by intuition …one day at a time.

So, here I am, many stories later, still no driver’s license, but well traveled, well cared for, well fed, well loved and inspired beyond anything I could imagine.  And after just one short year I have found that my heart is happiest singing, participating in a music company that has children at the center of everything, and creating opportunity for myself and as many others as possible to live their dreams.  How could I have known any of this before taking the leap?

Today, August 18th, one of those dreams is being realized for a group of young people who just landed in Kathmandu, Nepal.  I took a leap of faith and decided to produce a short film of recording children in Chitwan, Nepal, singing songs composed by my partner, Richard Gannaway and AOMUSIC. By reaching for my dream as a filmmaker, four amazing young people are reaching for theirs.  Paying it forward is not just about money, or gifting someone, but is also about what happens when I say yes to a vision from the heart…it expands to include so many other people who get a chance to do the same.  Physics of the Heart.

It is the height of the monsoon season in Nepal.  This “Dream Team” is made up of my daughter Jessie, who with her Canon 5D will be interviewing the village, the children and the team as, come rain and more rain, the children learn to sing.  Her photography will be part of a campaign for a documentary series.  Then there is Rob who is from Asheville and a yoga/slack line teacher as well as musician par-excellence who will be recording the children.  Josh is the “Yoda” of this entourage.  Josh has been living in India and has a story to share that will both curl your hair and make you stand up an applaud the tenacity of spirit in this young man.  Josh is a musician and teacher of music to children all over the globe.  And lastly is Karan, from Mumbai, India who is going to film the entire journey of AO in Nepal.  He has filmed numerous documentaries and brings so much to this unfolding story of AOMUSIC as we trek to where children are in need and hear the songs of their undaunted hearts.

So in these next ten days I will post a short story every day from Nepal to give you a window into the courage, the creativity and the spirit of those on this trip, the people of Nepal, my own unfolding in this process that has not been without obstacles, all in the hope that just one person might find their own heart on fire for change, for reaching for your dream and for helping those who need you most when you do.

As for me and coming to the close of a year on the road?  The Gypsy Life has become the life I choose from this moment forward. There is no other way to live for me.

 

AOMUSIC Meets Hollywood

Nepal Monastery

AOMUSIC had gotten the attention of Hollywood. The story of this is amazing. As many of you know, we were invited to trek to Nepal and record some children for our new album to be released Feb. 2013. And word spread in Nepal that we were coming, people heard the beauty of the music and the message of love that is AO and suddenly we got an invitation to come to visit the sacred Caves of Maratika and record. This is an arduous trip, yet this ancient site houses a majority of sacred Buddhist teachings.

This pilgrimage to the holy Caves of Maratika is in Halesi.  Maratika Cave and Monastery is located south east of Mount Everest and was the retreat of Mahadeva while he was in hiding.  For both Hindus and Buddhists it is one of their most famous pilgrimage centers.  Here is a note we received from the Monastery:

“Regarding Maratika:  We have now a project to reconstruct our Maratika Monastery as it is falling a part also this year’s earthquake has made little problem. For this project many buddhist high masters including H.H. Dalai Lama has written the supporting letter for this project.”

So, now we can help give back to them through the sale of the album and help their project because of their generous invitation. So our trip expanded and we were planning to go in the monsoon season, with swollen rivers and nighttime hikes for hours.

Suddenly another email. We were invited for an unprecedented trek to Solukhumbu Monastery.  A rugged overland passage.  Here is the proposal from our contact there, and their historical invitation. It reads,

“O yes i have some new idea for you or AO music, since you are in Nepal.
When you are in Nepal you can take your crew to my teacher’s monastery in Solukhumbu, which is the most beautiful place, it is like Tibet,  where now more than six hundred monks and nuns doing prayer every day, i think that make a great experience for AO.  My Guru His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche who is also the main guru of HH Dalai lama has recently passed away, after many months praying here in Nepal, his precious Kudung, which is his enlighten body, is now in his Monastery Solukhumbu. If you are planning than i can organize a trip and  guide to accompany with you i really think it will be good for AO music since we see that AO will be beneficial for so many people. For that sense that place HH Monastery is the most powerful place, if you are targeting music and chanting with visual beauty.”

So as you can see there is not only a story about the dedication of AO to bring World Music a new voice for change, involving children all over the globe, but our reach now can be educational and inspiring with this trek to Nepal and beyond.

AO trains and records children, most of whom are living in extraordinary circumstances. These children have never been in choirs before and are from the poorest of the surrounding villages.  They will be singing about love, light and our world for the first time, in a harmonically creative language.  This is a signature for AO, that the language cuts across all boundaries and languages and creates a universal, harmonically pure vibration.  You will see the effects of this on the faces of all the children of AO.

AO have been astonished at how these requests open new doors for changing the hearts of people. “But how could we fund this in such a short time?” we asked. Then a phone call.

“This should be a documentary” he said. And before we knew it a dozen interested film people, PBS producers, Independent directors, videographers and Bollywood interest just flooded in. Without effort. An amazing gift for the simple act of holding the vision. One song at a time, one child at a time and one dollar at a time.  One person said that this is a “Dream’Gig” and AOMUSIC has a big dream: To allow for the change needed on the planet to be both initiated by the light of children and the musical purity that is AO. Then to give back to as many children in need as is possible. Why? Because the children hold our future in their hands.

We are now going to Nepal in August to complete our original vision of recording the children of Chitwon and finishing the album and we have given the month of November over to returning to Nepal for all three treks, this time with a film crew and substantial funding.

And what I can say about living in the flow is that the Universe knows when Spirit is at the heart of life and gives such abundant support and love that it takes my breath away.
The project is cooking, growing sea legs, gaining funding and can be the single greatest help to advancing the causes of these children by creating both life changing music AND now creating a visual reference for spirit at work on a suffering planet.

We still need your help to get to the children in Nepal in August and want to have everyone who can give a tax deductible donation to make this trip a reality, become part of our team as we make this documentary. We will be looking for those who want to participate as associate producers or even carry our bags. As I will continue to say, It Takes a Village to Create Change. And Richard Gannaway and I have been the first to “move our feet” to fund the vision. We have used our own resources to make it thus far and I have given up coffee, time to even take a shower and Richard has given up vacations and sleep.  But we cannot move to the next level of the vision alone.

Please visit us at our Kickstarter page   http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/933732314/ao-music?ref=live.   For only $10 you can receive our Last Album,” And Love Rages On” which was shortlisted for the Grammys this past year. This trip takes $10,000 in support.  We are nearly one third there and have less than two weeks left to generate the funds or if we are short our goal even $10, we lose all our dedicated funding.

You can Donate tax deductible contributions on our AO website at  http://www.aomusic.com/ao/blog/wordpress/   and join us on the adventure. Please see the gifts we will give back to you for helping us get this first leg of the trip to Nepal accomplished.

And if you simply cannot push a button and donate $10, $50, $100 then do us the next best favor please.  Send an email to 5 friends.  Tell someone how interesting this project is and point them to all our YouTube videos or my website.  Your spreading the word and sending an email to friends is worth it’s weight in gold.

And get to know each of us at AO on my website at:   http://www.mayalunachristobel.com/heartbeat/

Blessings and thank you, Maya

Surprised by Life

I have been on the road for six months now.  And most of those Road Trips taken were without being able to drive my car.  My legal rights to a driver’s license buried in some endless bureaucracy.  At first, I felt like the inability to legally drive would become a boulder sitting right in the middle of my life and block my deep intentions to follow the flow of where the river would take me.  For a month or more I reacted and resisted this interruption in my perceived plan.  Once the likelihood of driving wherever my heart led, was challenged, I relaxed into the “interruption” and began to relate to it as a gift.  “What might this unwanted experience provide for me that I could not have known or perceived without it?”  And the answer was: “Surprise?”  The answer was,”The unexpected”.

What I am coming to understand is that MY “plans” are only one possible future.  And my attachment to the outcome of those plans can limit my life.  If I could have driven, my two week stay with my daughter with an intention to drive North to Maine would have me leaving Asheville.  But, because I had to pause for a moment, breath, let go of my attachment to any outcome, I stumbled into my own desire to create a website while waiting for what I thought would be a few weeks before the debacle of my driver’s license was behind me.

I interviewed two people for the job and hired one.   Mary Long brought love, joy and creativity to my creating a clearer identity and I hired her.  Richard Gannaway was equally as gifted, but somehow in our interview we never truly discussed my budding website, but fell into a mutual love for music, for his work as a composer, singer and musician with AO Music.  Richard sent me home that day with his newest album and my life changed forever.

The music did what music only can.  It opened a part of me long-buried and reminded me of a part of myself that had forgotten a core inspiration in my life which lead me to aligning my self with AO Music and it’s care for changing hearts and helping children.  My life ignited. If I had driven away as planned I would have missed Joy breaking into my life.

 “The Law of Attraction is responding to your thought, not to your current reality. When you change the thought, your reality must follow suit. If things are going well for you, then focusing upon what is happening now will cause the well-being to continue, but if there are things happening now that are not pleasing, you must find a way of taking your attention away from those unwanted things. You have the ability to quickly change your patterns of thought, and eventually… your life experience.”  Abraham

I stayed much longer in Asheville than had been planned.  I had time to sit inside of my own dreaming, my own inspiration and my deepest wants and desires and could not “drive away from them”.  The minute I claimed these hopes and dreams my energy changed, my happiness increased and as the law of attraction is trying to teach us, suddenly and immediately people, ideas, opportunities and gifts that MATCHED those dreams and inspirations began to flood into my life. I was offered the chance to write a screenplay and then to attend The Film School in Seattle.

Tom Skerritt, The Film School

I did not chase my dreams in my car. I couldn’t.  I did not make a ten point list of goals for the year to tick off one by one. I waited, I practiced deep self inquiry and I listened to promptings that had been drowned out by my assumptions about my life and what I should be doing.  And in return, the Universe was given room and space to spill into my life with opportunity that I could not have seen.

Since “having my wings clipped”, so to speak by unforeseen circumstances, I have found that in fact, I do not need a car.  That I do not need to spend all that money and gas for something that I have done just fine without.  I can stop polluting the planet.  I can create a slower pace instead of knowing that my car is right outside my front door so I can dash anywhere.  That has been another surprise.  The cost of a periodic taxi, taking the bus when I am in an urban area, being a passenger with a friend who I get a chance to chat with, and generally limiting how many places I need to be in a day has slowed me down to a rhythm that I am liking. That is healthier and more centering.

I have spent time on the ocean in Washington with Icelandic Ponies, I have lived in a hotel for a month while going to The Film School here is Seattle, I have aligned my life and heart with a cause to open the heart through music. I am nearly done with the first draft of the screenplay I have been asked to write.  And my website reflects the constant unfolding of me as I move toward being the most authentic expression of myself.  And come the end of May, one year after the death of my mother, my daughter, who I have been staying with in Asheville will be moving.  The lease is up.  And the question that comes back round is:  What’s next.  Where will my next stop be?  I cannot wait to be surprised!

I was directed in a scene by Tom Skerritt as the infamous “Mrs. Robinson” from the movie The Graduate.  Acting is NOT my forte so I will stick to being a writer!

From Rural to Urban

New Stop….Seattle.  I have just spent one month in a place, cut off from the United States but still part of Washington.  Point Roberts.  You have to go over the Canadian Border, drive a bit and then go back over the US border to get there. Then to go shopping at the nearest Safeway equivalent you have to do that all over again.  The rub?  Sometimes the border crossings are an hour wait.

But, Point Roberts turned out to be a haven for my writer’s soul:  Pastoral, wild, rural and  bordered on three sides by the Strait of Georgia. And if the solace was not wonderful enough, the place was crawling with film industry writers, producers, camera men and great interest in the screenplay I am writing.  I found that as I kept aligned with my inspiration to tell a story, to care for self and find joy in the beauty around me, I continued to experience the magic of living in the flow.  Wonderful people and experiences have flooded my life and led me to deeper and more meaningful expressions of myself.  But time was up and I needed to head for Seattle.  My next home for a month.

Seattle is where I will be attending The Film School (www.thefilmschool.com) to immerse myself in a month long intensive bootcamp for screenwriters.  Working with Tom Skerritt  (A River Runs Through It) will be amazing.  My hope?  To polish a form of writing that is not a perfect fit for wordy ole me and to create a final version of the story I am currently writing.  As I will most likely be the age of most of the other participants parents, I am excited to have this opportunity to strip down to the most basic me, pull out all my writing weaknesses and build my skill as a screenwriter.  Somehow, at this moment I am remembering Demi Moore in GI Jane and a shudder runs up and down my spine. Twelve hour days, six days a week with Sunday for sleep and laundry.

And, since I last wrote about my travels, my trials and my over the top excitement about the life I am living, the following things have happened:  I was ultimately denied a driver’s license after five months of effort with my lawyer.  I am quietly considering my options and have not a bone in my body that is having a problem with my new non-driver status.  My not driving has led me to more experiences and people I would never have had or met otherwise. I am determining which radical path I will take to solve the issue.  But ultimately  I  have found out first hand that no one really needs a car.  No one.

I have met producers interested in the film I am working on and I have joined as a full partner with AOMUSIC which I count as the greatest gift from my not driving, for if I had my driver’s license way back in September I would have been off to NYC and I would never had met Richard Gannaway, who is the heart behind the music that I believe can change the world.  It has certainly changed mine. (please read about AO and Richard on my new website http://www.mayalunachristobel.com)

I have a new website which has been the best therapy I have ever done with people I love helping me to create myself in the world…. anew.  I have attended an Oscar Gala hosted by Tom Skerritt and won a raffle that benefits The Film School, to do something I have wanted to do all my life:  Fly Fish!   And fly fish with Tom and his wife for three days on the Yakima River here in Washington at the Canyon River Ranch Resort.  Pinch me now. Gotta get some waders!

I have also teamed up with Todd Huston to start an independent production company, Light Show Productions, to create films with heart, soul, integrity and inspiration.  Todd has been wonderful to write about, wonderful to work with and he is now headed back to Missouri to the little cabin where we had our “Deliverance” experience.   I am oddly happy not to be going back again if I may say so myself and will just stay tucked in here at the Mediterranean Hotel in Queen Anne.  Hotel living is pretty great.  Simple, small, efficient, friendly and has a 24 hour business center and a coffee shop on the ground floor.  My Leo self really likes this.

And this tiny accounting of life in the flow for a Gypsy without a car, is just scratching the surface of the amazing things that have been rushing into my life since I made this commitment to living on the road as a way to discover what makes me happy.   What I have found out it that I never once had to even look for happiness.  It was there all along and the Universe simply was poised, ready for me to  open my heart and my arms to life in it’s fullest.  Happiness has been that easy all along.

 

Angels on the Highway

No journey is truly as rich as it can be without the experiences we have with total strangers along the way.  Those “chance meetings”, paths crossing in surprising ways and angels disguised as the homeless man, the bartender, convenience store cashier or the lost dog needing your help, that makes you change course.  These strangers are part of my navigational system as I attempt to live in the flow and they have everything to do with how my river moves.  Every meeting carefully placed on my path by that which is so much bigger than anyone can fathom.  All we need to do is pay attention.

My journey thus far has been a remarkable confluence of meetings that has already changed the course of my plans and my designs of what this year is about.  So, as I can, I want to introduce you to some of the wonderful people who are becoming the “sign posts” along my way , pointing out the possibilities and already etching themselves into my heart.

My new outpost in Asheville fills the senses with the pungent smell of spice and jasmine, is littered with dimly lit nooks with small tables, harem cushions and blazing colors of orange silk and saffron.  Locals are in the shadows, all hiding low whispers of conversations over a pot of tea from the tea bible filled with a hundred teas from all over the globe. I spent hours  in joyful sharing at the Dobra Tea House here in Asheville with a remarkable artist and musician who is inspiring a deeper experience  of my own joyful expression.  Here is one of Richard Gannaway’s many videos from his album entitled “…And Love Rages On“.  Visit his website http://www.richardgannaway.com/rg/blog/wordpress/…be moved, be lite on fire.  As one of the lyrics says “I am another you, and you are another me”.  Oh so true.

And then there is Mary Long, who I do think is very aware of her angelic presence on this planet.  She is motivating me to create an internet presence that is long overdue and is part of a wonderful community here in Asheville that revolves around the Sacred Fire.   http://www.ivaluva.com/

Design from the heart. Designing differently in the world. Building relationship. Reaching out. Listening. It’s all about what you bring. It’s all about community. Honoring your gifts. Offering them to the world. {and a little bit of business therapy, too} Communicating in a new way. Connecting. With heart. Believe it.