writing – bodymovin.net

I used astrocartograhpy to find my way to Taos and it seemed to work out well. I thought I would use the same approach to find a life partner, so this is how this past summer went.

I flew into Helsinki, Finland. I have a Venus paran line that runs through it, and I have fond memories of my first travels through there. It was my first time flying over and seeing Greenland in some daylight. It looked cold, windy, and desolate.
I was enthralled at my arrival. Finland is such a remarkable place. Helsinki gives this industrial, spacious, liberal, futuristic utopia, arts, nature, socialist vibe. You feel this just walking into the airport. It just feels like a more evolved country.

The city has a beautiful clean public transportation system that exceeds anything you would find the US. I stayed in a neighborhood in the central north side of Helsinki called Pasila. It was built in the 70s and has 2 levels. A level at top that is meant for pedestrians, and a lower level meant for cars. The neighborhoods are well planned, spacious, and green.
I stayed in an apartment close to a mall that had supermarkets, a tram stop, and served as a communal place to socialize. Prices are reasonable. I was paying less here for my apartment than what I was paying for back in Taos.

The pastries are different. I was fond of the breads with various types of cheeses baked into them. There is this one type of rye bread, karjalanpiirakka, that has dried rice porridge on a piece of bread. It is eaten alone or with coffee and is bland. I am normally gluten free, but throughout my trip I was able to have gluten without getting sick.

There are pretty parks and lakes around the city.

The architecture and art found throughout Helsinki is unique and inspiring.

One of my favorite buildings was the Oodi Centrial Library. This state of the art building has an elaborate maker space, music studios and equipment, gaming area, kitchen, and community facilities. In general there is a strong sense of community I felt while in Helsinki.

I met up with an old friend, Antti, who hosted me 20 years ago on my first travel through. It was a special reunion. Antti got me in touch with another friend, Miika, who introduced me to other friends while I was in the city this time around.

I was in Helsinki during onset of pride month. There was this fun outdoor party at park near the main plaza. Later in the week, I met up with some of the friends I met through Miika and went to a drag show. It was being presented in a repurposed bomb shelter bunker.

In all, I stayed in Helsinki for three weeks, although I had planned to stay for seven. During the third day there, I found that I hadn’t gone to the line that would be the most likely place to find a partner, and so by this time I had figured that if I hadn’t met him by now, I should move to another location. The new location was at latitude 53°49′, so I took a ferry across Baltic sea to head south.

I headed to Vilnius, Lithuania passing Riga and Tallinn on the way. The people in Tallinn seemed sad, as though they were exhausted. The bus ride down was lovely with lots of forest and an Soviet feel.

Vilnius was beautiful and quaint. It reminded me of Italy at times, but more inexpensive, and with better pastries. There are many Gothic churches and buildings here with intricate details carved onto them.

I stayed here for a few days, but again didn’t find what I was looking for and headed north to Riga where I had met someone on a dating app as I was passing through. Before leaving the city, I visited Trakai Island Castle. It was pretty and the water was clear. Just like Helsinki, the water here is much better protected and cleaner than what you typically find in the US.

I headed up to Riga. Riga is also pretty. Its not as manicured as Vilnius, but I would venture to the say the pastries are better, and the forest next to the beach is like something out of a Lord of the Rings.

Ultimately the guy I went up to meet and I wanted different things and so I headed west to Hamburg.

I’d say if I had to move back anywhere in order to continue my search, it would be Hamburg. The city is big and has many interesting areas. I stayed mostly in St. Pauli. There are many green spaces dispersed throughout the city. Just like Helsinki, they have a good recycling system that accounts for various kinds of plastics. There are many bodies of water here.
The music scene is good. There are clubs that open on Friday night and don’t close till Sunday afternoon.
I spent about 10 days here then moved west to Bremen.

Bremen is a charming town with a river that runs through it. I happened to be there during Breminale, a festival that spans a few days and includes music, art, theatre, circus, and food stalls. The best DJ sets I’d heard on this trip were at this festival. I loved how the rain didn’t detract the people from continuing to dance. It was like joy staying rooted through adversity. Amazing.

Again, I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I made friends along the way. I headed back to Hamburg and then back home.
The impression left on me by the time I left was that I wanted to be in Europe. I had this aspiration once, but got side tracked by various pursuits. This one reminded me how much I miss that place.
I went to Taos to achieve an objective, which I realized was more complicated than I expected. Now, finding a way back to Europe on a more permanent basis looks to be my new priority.

The stories we choose to tell shape how we understand ourselves and the possibilities we believe are open to us.
It’s been almost a year since I came here. It has been a rich experience.

The land here is special. I had the opportunity to dance out on the mesa a few times. Its such an expansive experience. Its like the space swallowed me in these 360 views that were constantly changing in subtle ways.
In that space, there are no words.

Since being here, I’ve been pretty active with the local Gelukpa center (Buddhist), the Hanuman ashram, and the Taos community of love. There is a lot of Dharma here for being a small town. I started facilitating meditation sessions at the Ksitigarbha center at the request of the resident Geshela. I was also invited to give a talk at the Toas community of love on Shamatha.
Watch it here.
I think the most profound readings I’ve come across since being here have to do with understanding that our perspective is consistently incomplete and flawed. “Through our preconceptions we distort the reality of almost everything.”
Meditation continues to be a stable refuge in Samsara.

I’ve been fortunate to have beautiful old friends come to see me and have made a few new ones.

I love that the art scene here is so active and how it inspires local festivals. During winter there are a few festivals near the center of town with carolers and pastries! Recently, the ecstatic dance and 5 rhythms scenes have been making a come back. Maybe they are seasonal. They’ve been insightful and revealing.

In an unexpected turn of events, I got an elementary PE coach job in November. I thought after quitting after my first year at a Texas public school I’d never do that again, but teaching PE in New Mexico is a bit different and much less stressful, although teaching seems to still have a sharp edge to it. I love the views from the playground. I also love that there is a built in gardening module every year in PE! This year I got to teach all the students in the school mindfulness breathing techniques. There is nothing more important I can share.

Taos has been a good home. It’s been especially nice living with my current roommate Kathryn. She’s an amazing cook!

During spring break I headed over to the Drala Mountain Center (DMC), previously SMC, where I used to work. My friend Sopa, who I had worked with there, had just been ordained a nun and was moving back. I thought it would be good touch base with the land. It had been a couple of years since I last visited, and was curious to see how it had evolved. It was an amazing trip. I volunteered in the kitchen.
Upon my arrival, I was surprised to find that I was given the same room I had stayed in almost a decade ago, when I had arrived at DMC the first time!
The new staff was friendly and social. On one outing, I was shown this place out in Red Feather Lakes that had many boulders laid flat at the foot of a perfectly vertical cliff. My guide told me that he had found a petroglyph of a humming bird and a rabbit next to each other. When he consulted a Mayan epigrapher, he was told that it communicated “the entrance to the underworld”. He told me unusual encounters he had while hiking in the area.
On another occasion, my kitchen colleague took me crystal hunting. That was a first!

After DMC, I spend a day with another ex-colleague, Rachel, in Silt. The hi-light of that visit was seeing this UFO house, inhabited by this artist who worked exclusively on various mediums of alien art.

During my Easter break, I visited Sedona. That was an incredible trip. There is so much to see there and so many angles to see from. I unintentionally took a back road west through New Mexico. That drive was pretty epic too. The landscapes were like something out of a Salvador Dali painting. There’s so much space out there and when a unique landscape comes along, it is highlighted by all that space. I spent a few days camping and visiting the various vortices. On last day, I met a guy, by Oak Creek, who took me to a sand mandala dismantling ritual. That was pretty special. The teacher gave a short talk on death.

Like so much of what I’ve experienced in the last year, life is so vast and profound. Even at its most mundane moments, there is still a quality of limitlessness that is available in the gaps between the breath.

Tag: writing

Summer in north Europe

A year in Taos