Changing Seasons, Goodbyes and Festival time

Hello, hello, hello hello

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

That’s all there is

And the leaves that are green turn to brown

(Simon and Garfunkel, Leaves That Are Green)

We are in that funny time of the year when we are saying more ‘goodbyes’ than ‘hellos’. The numbers of travellers coming through our little town in the mountains is decreasing, the temperatures are slowly rising, and the fields and hills which were lush and green a few months ago are slowly turning crispy, brown and dry. We are spending more and more time watering the garden.

Friends are travelling on towards India, or Bali, or back to their homes. The seasonal gatherings and parties are beginning to finish for the time being. We have farewelled a lot of visiting friends - one of the hardest parts of living this life away from ‘home’ countries is saying goodbyes. To family or dear, dear friends who cross the seas to spend time with us for a short while. To travelling friends who we meet again each year, or maybe never again. It is a lovely but hard part of being a traveller.

However, the slowly changing season also means that it is festival time! A lot of friends headed to Jai Thep festival over the weekend and next week Shambhala in Your Heart starts - a lovely, Japanese-run hippy festival in Chiang Dao. The whole Shekina Garden community will be there, camping all together. We plan to run daily meditations there and also just enjoy time together and with our travelling community family.

We will send you an update from there next week!

(A post by ro)