the dawning of a new day..

Okay, I cant keep quiet anymore…I have resisted writing in this blog for long enough ! Some may call it being lazy..I call it just enjoying life a bit by living moment to moment ..Just haven't been feeling a real strong urge to share too much...I guess I just needed to be still for awhile, be quiet, decompress a bit..

But the moments are beginning to add up as are my desires to share some of these moments with you.... For me, it is so much more about the people I meet here,each and every one of them with his/her own amazing life story.



I want to share with you what makes me so happy here, why I wake up every morning with a smile on my face and why I go to sleep at night with a sense of peace and deep calm...I feel at home here...my spirit soars here, my mind calms down here...


I also am not a tourist here in Thailand anymore- at least I dont feel this way …This is my 7th time in this country and my visits here have now totalled close to a year’s worth of visits…I dont walk around all day with a camera in tow (though I have found my cellphone camera to be quite handy at times..)




From most people’s perspecitive, however, I am “on holiday”....and yes, it does feel at times , that life is very relaxing with little stress..."sabai, sabai," they say here...happy, happy...



But I do work here and thank my lucky stars that I have figured out a way to make a bit of money while I am here by teaching my university classes via my lil ol trusty Mac...lucky me, yes indeed...my office comes in the form of a 13x8 screen with a good WiFi card.




So this morning I woke up and felt different- the urge to write and share was strong- my hesitations of "putting it out there" finally waned…. and here I am…hoping that what I share here may inspire a few of you to pack up a bag and take off for awhile as well...

"just do it", I say..time goes fast...don't live life with any resentments of "what could have, should have, might of.."..






So yes, I am once again living the good and simple life here on one of my favorite islands here in Southern Thailand: Ko Lanta. It was great to be immediately recognized by a few of the locals when I arrived at Krabi airport , where I began to make my way to my little 12x12 bungalow here on this tropical island in the middle of the Andaman sea..…and to catch up with friends here , both local and visitors alike, has been wonderful. There is something to be said for having a history with a place, with people…


celebrating Inauguration night with fellow American freinds




view from my bungalow



me a my wonderful freind Kate, who is off to London in a couple of weeks to work on the next Harry Potter film !

My early morning routine pretty much consists of the following :

I wake up, look out my small bungalow window, take a moment to feel gratitude for the beauty around me, think about what I have to do for the day, look at my calendar and remind myself of anyone’s birthday I need to acknowledge somewhere in the world. I then check my email, write back to my students, correct papers, correspond with friends and family, make sure my online classes are in order…and then , I finally get out of bed..,



my daily ritual of making my first cup of coffee is something I now look forward to..The coffee is instant , mind you , but when all you have is a hot water boiler as your kitchen, this seemingly mundane task and drink takes on a much more luxurious tone…. I then sit out on my little wooden balcony with my steaming small porcelain mug, on my little plastic white chair with my little plastic green table and listen to the roosters cock-a -doodle -do their way through the early morning hours .I sit there for at least 20-30 minutes, quiet in thought, not saying much except for the occasional “sawatdee ka” to the local workers and children who pass my bungalow every morning on their way to start their day…






I purposely don’t have a camera with me at this time, even though what I see is so beautiful and wonderfully “thai” in so many ways…I just don’t want to break the moment or make the locals feel they are “on parade” – it just would seem like a rude intrusion to their daily ritual- afterall, I am living in their home, not the other way around….So instead, I just sit there in this quiet moment, reminding myself of where I am, what country and culture I am living in and , of course, telling myself, once again, how lucky I feel to have finally gotten this life lesson that “less is truly more”.


So with the dawning of a new era, a new president, a new sense of hope and a feeling that we all have been given permission to start anew again, I start my blog … again,,,,,with new thoughts, new insights, new friends, new places, and new dreams ...and the hope that we can all travel freely and peacefully throughout this most awesome planet..




Happy new year…