shamash says...

The Way of Tea

"Water can quench your thirst and wine can drown your sorrows, but only tea can refresh your spirit."

- Lu Yu, Tang Dynasty, "The Classic of Tea", 760 CE - 780 CE

While contemporary cosmopolitan coffee shops are known for 24-hour wifi/caffeine and jolts of espresso for high-energy boosts for a better and faster life, tea houses celebrate the slowing down of things: a stepping away from sidewalk traffic into a ritual that honors that which is timeless.

 

Diving in Bali: Breathing with the Fishes

Three days of diving is not enough time to see it all: wreck diving above the submerged 350-foot long, WWII Liberty Ship, mermaiding your way along an immense drop-off reef on the other side, and establishing neutral buoyancy above the coral garden and dramatic sand slopes in between.

Tulamben Bay in Bali is worth a return trip.

Mango Rains: the Monsoon Has Arrived (I think!)

  Hooray, hooray, the monsoon's here;

Hooray, hooray, the mango rains;

Hooray, Hooray, the flooding streets;

Hooray Hooray the chilly air.

105 degrees has dropped to 75 degrees: brrr: where's the fleece?

On my tin roof, the rain is drumming, drumming, drumming, announcing the change of the seasons.

Mother Nature is making up for the past six months of no rain.

(This is a pic of my wet, happy garden! :-)

Life on the Lake: an Inle Photo Journal

“What makes a place special is the way it buries itself inside the heart, not whether it’s flat or rugged, rich or austere, wet or arid, gentle or harsh, warm or cold, wild or tame. – Richard Nelson (as qtd in Beyond the Last Village by Alan Rabinowitz)

original image by shamash

A few days at Inle Lake is good for the soul. Read on for a photo journal.

Soaked to the Skin: Water Festival

  reveler: (n.) one who engages in uproarious festivities and merry-making

Jeeps full of kids with super-sonic water pistols that look like they came straight out of Star Wars pump streams of water on passers-by. Loud speakers from the pandals pump techno-beats, rock and roll, and 80’s remixes, especially the remix of “What’s Up.”  Street venders sell deep-fried crickets, barbequed sparrows, and hot samosas.

The wildest, wettest festivity in the world doesn’t happen in Thailand or South America’s Carnival, but in this country Somewhere in Asia. It’s four days long, and promises to bring out your inner child. Or inner monster. Or a little bit of both.

Plant Beans and Berries

-from the e-book "How to Disappear", by Pete Leki and Bobby Sutton.

Note to self: I wanna live like this. 

Two Worlds

Back where my Pennsylvania family lives, this is what I might see if I walked down the road.

(image via tony)

While strolling the other morning in this city “Somewhere in Asia” I snapped this shot of a novice monk with his begging bowl.

By the grace of God and the Buddha, I live in both worlds.

Despite appearances, these worlds are not that different.

Really.

Surreal Christmas

Outside the screen door, palm leaves in my yard rustle in the breeze. Monks from the nearby Buddhist monastery chant all through the night, and not a creature is stirring, not even a gecko. I’m in my shorts and flip-flops. So much for dashing through the snow and roasting chestnuts on an open fire.

The Buddhas Below

"Though dim: a light
Hope breeds in backwaters"

photo_by_shamash

out with the (m)old

I_will_grow _feathers_and_ fangs, and paint my dreams.
I will play with monsters rather than fight them, and invite the snake in for tea. I will feed the Cyclopes.
I’m heading to the jungle where the wild things are.