Lights On

There’s something powerful about first light.

After days of constant rain, the sky cleared. It happened just as the electricians got done wiring everything, so that the first look I got of the lights turned on was amazing, lush and magical. It was one of those seemingly orchestrated moments that make you think what you are doing is somehow über-important. It's silly and self indulgent no doubt, but who can deny that its fun to dream like this? This time I just let myself dream.

Some advice. When you are building your meditation center in Thailand and you are on a budget, I suggest just putting your light in baskets and just stringing them up. Basically, magic is cheap.

In Shekina meditation, we don’t try very hard to block out our surroundings and go completely inside ourselves. A lot of the practice is about cultivating awareness and openness as a door to welcoming the spirit of God.

I sat for an hour or so, thinking about all the amazing meditation times we would have looking out on this humble and beautiful little mountain range, listening to the sounds of nature, taking it all in. I can't wait.

Also, I can’t thank the workers enough, who slept in the center for three days because the rain made the roads unusable. I carried the refrigerator in by hand (with my newfound delivery-man-buddy-for-life) slogging through mud and getting soaked because the delivery truck got stuck in the mud and had to be pulled out by another truck, which barely escaped the same fate. We had fun in the mud guys! Thanks for everything!