Thailand Greetings

Okay, so I have the intention to blog about my experience on this extraordinary trip that I am taking with young mom, Willow, and baby, Birch. Not exactly sure how that will happen, but I do hope to find the time and the words. There is no lack of inspiration even with our time so far. We close in on our destination as we speak. Chiang Mai, Thailand is half hour more away by the China Eastern plane we are on. We have struggled to explain the time changes that we have been flying into since we left. What date is it? We know we are time travelers, and we have covered a lot of time. Now we are in opposite land, and we left you Mn’sotans a day behind. We didn’t mean to, but now we are prescient. We are in the future, but don’t ask for any predictions, we are too busy!

And now…..in the present we spent our first day of Willow in her classes. It was not easy for baby to give her up today. He is feeling lousy with a cold and ear ache, not to mention having been transported from everything he knows to Thailand. We have an ornate temple right across the street where we are staying. Just the shape of it requires a new place in my brain to open. It has a golden spire and other peaks all around with sinuous golden horns that jut up in many directions.

I suppose his brain is having less trouble with it since everything is always new, but leaving home takes all familiarity away. What a good egg he is with many moments of greeting a sight with a guffaw or chortle. He got to feed a horse a banana, and be greeted by a grunting puppy on the temple grounds. Most of the cats and dogs are wary of humans, even tiny humans. So many people want to greet him and get close with these lovely disarming smiles, but he is not so receptive right now. Perhaps in time. He is generally gregarious, though I’ve learned that he has boundaries within that! We adults sure want to get smiles from those little ones.

My arms have been taxed today since baby mostly wanted to be carried and we have no stroller. And by the way, we lost 3 out of 4 checked bags. We have gotten two back, and are still looking for the one that stayed in Chicago rather than coming with our plane to Shanghai, China. That has a baby carrier in it. I need that thing! I believe that we will get it back, though if you could have taken the truck ride we took to Earth Homes Farm, which is still in Chiang Mai though in the countryside! (You must look up this place; it is not only very sweet visually, but an organic farm with permaculture practices, and local Thai foods that are quite different from restaurants in the US, and, according to our host, different from urban Thailand’s food.) you would never have expected to see any of the bags again. What a world.
So we are at this organic farm until the 14th, and then we move back to the city proper of Chiang Mai for two weeks of Willow’s massage training. I know we will miss this countryside. This is a fascinating place, international, with teachings about permaculture, cooking, composting, and people come to volunteer and share practices. And there happens to be a self empowerment workshop going on with people from all over, so conversations are expansive and vital!

……well time to publish this first installment. I feel a bit jet lagged still, so the words are not as cohesive as I would like. I am happy about this trip, and feel that it will be very fruitful