Traveling Thoughts

Remember the post about Mind Your Head? Well, I've also realized that this winter's theme includes Watch Your Steps. Steps are all around us in Asia. In Thailand and here in Cambodia, there is always a staircase between life on the street and our sleeping room - more often 2 flights.
The steps at the Angkor temples are closer to ladders than stairs and the hallways have steps too.

One set of steps at one temple.
There is a song; with a line - "Yippie, We're all going to die."
It keeps going through my head.

I pulled a card the other day and the message was about having the faith to take the step out over the void and trust that the bridge will extend and your foot will land on something solid. The Rune stones call this the empty-handed leap into the void.
Yesterday, just to mix things up a little, we climbed a dry creek bed instead of steps and went to the River of Lingas. We still did not manage to completely leave behind steps though - LOL.
So, I started thinking about what Trudy told me Miguel had his travelers contemplate - "Who are you? Where are you? What are you doing here?"


 Mind Your Head and Watch Your Step - Good Advice Any Day. Yes, it is and at one point yesterday I really needed to practice this or I would have either twisted my ankle or caught my chin on a wooden vine hanging low over the path.

Wild, winding woody vines!

If find these metaphors useful meditations during the times we have to relax. Last night, I remembered a image from a yoga practice at Yasodhara last spring. In brief, we were imaging ourselves as trees when the group leader said, "Imagine if your roots are anchored in the sky." My immediate reaction to that was, "That's not right. The tree would be traveling through the air at ridiculous speeds with no connection to what nourishes it."
Here I am some months later traveling through the air at ridiculous speeds with no connection to what nourishes me. Hmmm.
Although, that's not exactly true. Travel nourishes the mind. I am very glad I have come to these foreign lands and learned what I have about me. I'm also happy to have seen what I've seen and I know that all of it is part of what I wanted and needed to experience. It has reaffirmed my belief that good people live all over the planet and that an alternate lifestyle is no reason to judge people as less than anyone else.

Golden light on the faces of Bayon

There is simply no denying that travel expands the mind and provides focus regarding personal choices. I would be less if I hadn't done this. And I'm not done yet - rapid eyebrow wiggle here.
Ta Phrom where they filmed some Tomb Raider scenes.