Walking back from Peak Hour Prayer at Bodhnath Stupa yesterday

Back in Bodhnath.

I lay down in bed, slowly awakening. Bell tinkles and the deep song of monks prayers are my reality.

Incense smells waft through the open window, a new life starts.

Tihar lights on our Lura House.

Our trip to Lura is over, people who lived as one for two weeks are now embracing their individual realities. They ‘ ll be celebrating, reflective, peaceful, grounded, joyful, sad, inspired. In Australia, in Dubai, in Sri Lanka, in Nepal.

A little bit of all of us is now in each of us. The kind of time we had in Solu, experiencing life together in an environment so different from what we are used to, does not disappear without a trace.

Trust Einstein to come up with the right words:  ” experience is knowledge, the rest is information”. This new Knowledge of each other and our new place will stay within us, and become a stepping stone on our path to Greater Understanding.

All of us made life what it was, and what it is.

The traditional Beyond the Smile group photo 😉
Left to right, back to front: Jarka, Dan, Lucy, David, Nima-Ninja, Anna, Lyn, Puri, Dominik, Brigitte, Linda, Nima-Mote. Lakpa was busy talking to Ang Kami’s widow. More on that later.

Memories – already!- of special times can never be taken away.

Thank you Jarka for your inner and outer smile, for the yoga lessons, for the gifts you and Dan brought, including your two beautiful children to share time with us. Thank you Dan for the stories of Eastern Europe before the revolution, for the laughs and energy and the go with the flow approach to anythink and everythink  😉

Dominik, Linda and Lyn, picnic en route to Tiger Devi temple

Thank you Linda for the magic and the drawings, for making new friends and taking minutes of meetings in your little notebook. Thank you Dominik for Uno playing and stories of footie, for knowing all the right numbers when and where they were needed.

Lyn and Anna enjoying the good life in Thamel.

Jarka presenting Karma Dai, Lura School Principal, with materials for the children.

Jarka and Dan at Naya Bazaar Saturday market

Lyn’s early morning School in Lura.

Corn peeling in Pemba and Lakpa’s courtyard. Last time ( in February) , it was sorting potato seeds that members helped with! 🙂

Thank you Anna for your grounding energy and joie de vivre! Thank you Lyn for the morning reading and comprehension classes in the farm courtyard, surrounded by eager children with or without snotty noses 😉

Lucy and David meditating at Chiwang Gompa

Thank you Lucy for the light and love that seep from your every pore, and for the stretching sessions very much needed after walks, thank you David for your enthusiasm and commitment to keeping Beyond the Smile a growing story of love and working together.

Lakpa and Nima at Zamling Gomba

Last, but not least, thank you to the staff, Chepung Cook extraordinaire, Purba, Dawa, Mote and Puri, Kazi and Bahadur, and our porters, Soma, Purni Maya, Da Jangmu and others.

A very special thank you to my brothers Lakpa and Nima for a great job at making everything run smoothly despite the always ” expect the unexpected” factor of organising treks in Nepal. You guys rock!!!

Buhari’s first EVER visit to Kathmandu, after her first plane trip, at 39 YO!

Thank you also to Buhari ( Pemba Tamang) for sharing the family house, the warmth of village life and the everyday laughs which make this well being well doing trek the unique experience that it is for all of us.

Derai derai dhanyabad!

Be well, do well.

Next BTS Well Being Well Doing Treks: early March and early November 2015. Maximum number of participants: Eight only. Be quick! 🙂