Hundreds of retreatants, ninety percent of them women, climb up here to the roof on Saturdays and holidays, at the end of a long slow-walking meditation. The entire roof is a tribute to a Mongolian/Tibetan deity named Green Tara. My teacher, Maechee Sansanee, installed this naked-breasted goddess ten years ago. In Thailand, an extremely conservative group of monks hold the reins, as in most of Asia. Or as in most of the world’s...
Read MoreHello again, dear readers. Here I am again, at the climax of my perennial Hit Parade song: Happy birthday to you-ou-ou… Happy birthday to me-e-e-e… Every day we are born, And every day we are free-e-e-e.. Except, it was my actual birthday that evening, having completed seventy-one revolutions around the sun, counting the first year. And I have added a little component this year: after Every day we are born, I now tuck in the line, And...
Read MoreI’ll have to choose two among the myriad magical events last week. Both will relate to the great circle of human life, its beginnings and endings. This has been Khun Mae’s (Maechee Sansanee’s) focus for the past decade. Last Sunday (and the first Sunday of every month, for many years), the Serene Mind Project happened again: Many dozens of couples arrive in the morning. All of the women are pregnant. Everyone is encouraged to pay...
Read MoreHello again, dears. Thank you for your best wishes and your interest in my journey. I myself haven’t more than a vague clue about what will be unfolding here. But all of my adventures seem to be grooming me for the same life lessons: 1. Nothing, nothing (!) is ever awry. 2. Be patient (5555**) and alert 3. Keep an open and refreshed heart, known here in Thailand as “jai yen.” (cool heart) I don’t need to go charging toward my goals...
Read MoreGreetings, dear readers. Thanks for joining me on this journey. Some of you are new readers, and some may remember my last Tales From Thailand, 2014. But very few folks know the context of this return to Thailand, four winters later: Four years ago, I asked my spiritual teacher and guide, Anna Cox, a question. . . “What is going on with this child? I love so many children at the orphanage, but she seems to have stolen my heart in a...
Read MoreJoy is in South Africa for the winter 2016 and will be reporting on her life and work in a small hermitage set aside for developmentally disabled children, in St. Helena Bay, Capetown, South Africa. Scroll down this page to read all the Tales as we post Joy’s newsletters on this blog.
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Greetings, dear readers, from my current home here at Island House. Do you ever have the feeling that you are at the zenith of your life… that all your prior experiences have prepared you for this precise one? That’s exactly how I feel, most mornings here….
Read MoreMy friends Fakier and Tim and I drove north, up the western Cape, through many national preserves, which were mostly ocean-side chaparral with a few ostrich and springbok and flamingoes and ibis.. Everything is dry and it looks like yet another drought year coming, to the farmers’ dismay. Finally, after a few hours, we found Eiland Huis (Afrikaan, for Island House), outside of St. Helena’s Bay.
As my American friend Jimmy Whitfield, who spent several decades as a missionary all over sub-Saharan Africa, wrote me: Truly that part of the Continent is one of the most beautiful places ever created.
So what is a sporadically funded non-profit home for severely disabled children, many of them indigent, doing on a piece of fabulously beautiful beachfront property, you might ask?
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Greetings, dear friends. And welcome to my initial peek into the world of Cape Town and this year’s adventure….( read about Joy’s first week in South Africa and her discovery of her place of service ….”In St. Helena Bay, a little village three hours north, with no transport other than by car, is a small hermitage set aside for developmentally disabled children (Polio, Down’s Syndrome, Birth defects) who can’t speak and need to be fed.”
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Hamjambo, marafiki (kiswahili for howdy, friends)! I know that many of you are patiently waiting for this second year’s installment on “Tales From Tanzania” – And I had my air ticket, my visa, gifts and clothes for the kids, lunch dates with friends in Dar Es Salaam and Mwanza….. when I heard from Sister Helena that: “the Busega police are very angry with you…they say that you are a spy..” And, from a certain...
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Above is a combination songfest and talent show. The kids voted on who should accompany Sister Helena to a government conference in Mwanza last week. Contest categories included: Volume, Clarity, Behavior, and Endurance…since the field trip would be a twelve-hour day, without food, or naps…. Click here to read the full Tales from Tanzania #10 including Valentines Day project, Nehma’s story, and the farewell songs and...
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And how do I leave these exquisite children behind me, when I have a personal little tradition or a special sound or a clap-game or a memory that only we share? Friends who know me wondered how I could leave the orphanage in Thailand last year, knowing I wouldn’t be back. Or Cancer Village, in the north of Thailand, or my Buddhist community in Bangkok? Usually there are tears involved, on both sides…. and my profound belief in...
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Remember Beheveh, who ran away from his schoolwork in the last Tales? He has spent many hours here, in front of the the numbers chart, reciting…. early morning, afternoon, and evening, with someone to monitor, assist and support him. Some evenings, Sister Helena will collect pens or plastic bottles, and he will count those instead, to make the numbers three dimensional. Beheveh can now count to twenty. The first time he did it,...
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Everybody over two years old shares the work, here at the Center. Tasks are done very, very carefully. While watching Habi fold clothes, I realize how sloppy I am, … Each fold has to be perfect. Sister Helena is demonstrating and teaching the children perfection, speed, and endurance. Survival is not assured here in the bush, and Sister wants these children to succeed! If someone over two years old falls asleep, they are advised...
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Wattle Hollow is a relatively small retreat center (40 acres of woodlands on a mountainside in Northwest Arkansas) with capacity for 20 - 25 folks.