I was chosen to go. The head of the school (we called her Kancho) wanted a two year verbal commitment. I wasn’t sure that I could give her this since I’d never spent any real time out of the States. So we compromised. I gave her a one year contract and stayed 12 years.

Before I left Boston most of my friends were flabbergasted. How could I go so far away alone? What if I didn’t like it? They clearly didn’t understand my mind set.

For me it  was a chance for discovery and adventure. It turned out to be that and more!

Peace, sunsets and aloha from Maui,

Ellen

http://www.womenswealthandwellness.com/mauiel

I looked outside and saw the front lawn and how it defined me. I was a child of my parents, living in a small town, which, of course was located in a state. Was that who I was?

I must have gone into some type of trance because I began to have visions. I drifted out and saw the country. I am an American. Still, not much of a definition or an identity.

Then I drifted out further and saw the world forming. It was pretty cool, lots of fire and lava and then a slow, slow progression to land and oceans.

Still the progression was slow.I saw the ice age. And its end.

Then mankind entered the scene. And the changes to the face of the earth happened in what seemed to be seconds. We haven’t been here very long, but through our wars and our building and our technology we have changed what took billions of years to evolve in a measly few thousand years.

This made me wonder about us, humans, as a race or a species. Are we wizards? Are we a cosmic experiment gone bad?

I resolved to live for an extended period in a very different culture to learn more about us, our similarities and our differences.

I also realized that life would be difficult if I saw our kind as a possible cosmic pimple. (Remember, I was young…)

I needed something to live for. And I chose beauty. Beauty in nature, in people’s smiles, in words, in music… If you look hard enough for it, beauty is all around us, in things small and large. In ideas and in ourselves.

That day, and I was in my room for hours, changed my life. I even lived in Japan for 12 years.

It’s not so much about weather, it’s more about whether. Whether we can and will take the moment to create a smile on a sad face, whether we can create laughter without cruelty. Whether we can commit to the responsibilities that we have to the planet and to each other.

Have you noticed that every little nice thing you do makes you feel better, too? Pay it forward from your heart and your soul.

I have many stories from many parts of the world and they all have lessons in them. (At least for me.)

I do hope that you’ll join me as I regale you with tales of humor, sadness, weirdness and a few oddities.