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Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Portland Body, Mind, Spirit Expo
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2009

This morning I woke up feeling great. I'd had a deep, restful sleep and woke up feeling refreshed.



This past weekend I attended the Body, Mind Spirit Expo at the Oregon convention Center http://www.bmse.net. I'd never been to the Convention Center before; it was a huge cavernous space with incredible presence. I went to the expo planning to hand out business cards and talk to holistic professionals about using World Light ASP websites to get the word out about the work they are doing. What happened instead is that over a two day period I was swept up in a whirl wind of positive energy, really informative, heartfelt, conversations and more than one peak experience.



I had a really fun time talking to Michael Brein The Travel Psychologist who patiently sat and listened to me rattle off my tales of adventure in Kathmandhu and was fortunate enough to meet Tahwakeena Kaye who is offering a Native Drum making and Native flute making class that I will probably take. Jacob Carter gave me a sample of Jus that had me flying high all day Sunday.



I think that perhaps one of the coolest guys in the whole place Jerry Norris who had very cool key clips and custom wallet chains on offer. We chatted for a while about tattoos and as a matter of fact his son Corry Norris (no relation to Chuck) was recently written up for his tattoo artistry in Flash Magazine!



I had one experience that I thought was really quite remarkable. During a really cool lecture by Roberta MacKrill a Hawaiian elder rose to speak, and spoke to the audience about the changing times in which we live and how now was the time to act and the importance of forgiveness. During this elder's speech, she very literally began to glow her aura was so bright and compassionate. That was remarkable but what I thought was really most remarkable was the generous, open and compassionate way in which Roberta Mackill shared her space with this elder. It exemplified a type of grace that I don't see every day. The coupe de grace was receiving Jyorei from the Shumei Society at the end of which I felt really light and peaceful.



I woke up this morning and began walking to my office. I stopped at Starbucks for a Soy Chai and ended up taking a detour to Grant Park. I tried to make my steps slow and mindful enjoying the sunshine and laughed out loud when I realized something: It was Monday morning and I was smiling and feeling fine. Now that's really something.



- Raja