MINDFUL MUMBLINGS!

 Mindful mumblings or the monkey mind? 

Maybe just overthinking.

29/4
Sustainable Development Fee

I don’t want anyone to pay this on my account and certainly not from an educational budget! 

At least now I have a name to apply to the barrier between Bhutan and us. 

We walked over 45 kilometres in the city in weather conditions that constantly had the ‘feels like’ temperature above 40°C for considerably portions of the day this last week, composted most of our garbage and recycled glass, cans and cardboard without much of a system in place to do so. The amount of physical waste we add to the system is less than the volume of a litre of juice which is the container we carry it down the stairs and into the streets in, quite often, and only every two or three days do we need to do that. I was disappointed to have consumed a delicious drink in a single use plastic cup this week when I always assiduously avoid them. I also avoid cafes that use plastic straws and even donate them alternatives. Exponentially adding to my own ecological footprint, isn’t an option and not a mistake I often make.  Conscious and mindful living is sustainability too!

30/4

This morning Ian said that Madam is going to speak to the ED about a waiver on the SDF because after all the YDF is a CSO! 
And that actually made sense to me. Acronyms are endemic in the kingdom and require deciphering. There was some joy in the fact that I actually understood it. 

Has the Bhutan bubble burst? Only time will tell. 

1/5 
It currently takes more optimism than I can actually muster to continue to keep the faith. I mourn and regret the neglect of the slow, simple, sustainable and safe lifestyle we worked hard to establish and once relished here and how we have allowed the sheer joy of it to lapse lured by optimism and hope. 

The black hole beckons. I need to rethink the physical, emotional and mental cost of living in limbo. 

I talk too much and write to rein in the monkey mind that threatens to overwhelm me. 

“Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering, 
There is a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.“
Music helps. 

Only now, it occurs to me returning to living more mindfully in the present, is the best way forward.  

2/5 

I’m grateful so many former students sent Teachers’ Day messages today. There is truly nothing more gratifying that knowing you actually made a difference. If I never get the opportunity to be in a Bhutanese classroom again I will be forever grateful for the time I had there and the things I learned about myself in the process. There were frustrations, conflicts, failures, joys, achievements and life lessons that will always stay with me in those years. Blinkers off real life learning. 

I also unexpectedly realised today that of all the places we have lived, Cambodia is now the record holder of the country we have lived in and loved for the longest consecutive time span. Almost six years currently but ‘it ain’t over yet’ as the saying goes. 

3/5

"The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”
David W. Orr - Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World.

I have read this several times before but it truly resonated today.