Being ‘Peaceful and at Ease’

I recently returned from an amazing adventure to Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).  My niece lives  there with her husband and 18 month old daughter.  Since I missed their wedding in Egypt 4 years ago I definitely did not want to miss seeing their lives in this very unique country; Myanmar  has only opened their doors again to many foreigners during the past 2-3 years since there has been a government shift towards more democracy.  I was fortunate to meet up with my older daughter  for part of the trip, and together we visited Inle and Bagan besides Yangon.  Do see the movies ‘the Lady’ and ‘Beyond Yangon’ for a historical perspective about the challenges that this country faced not too long ago.  Parts of the country were also impacted by the 2008 Tsunami  with a loss of possibly 140,000 lives despite there not being much publicity about it for various  reasons.

I want to talk about my intention for this trip:  to be ‘peace and at ease’ ….no matter what!  This is a phrase that we repeat in the Metta Sutta which I have been teaching and using for the past 2 1/2 years.  To be honest, in the past, I would get uneasy by  new travel experiences especially if I was to be traveling alone.  My goal was to totally overcome this issue, and I did send Reiki to many aspects of the trip even before I left Tucson.  For example, my flights on Air China (they were great!) from LAX and  thenTaipei were very close in time and in different terminals; they were even closer in time (with us also having a 1/2 hr delay leaving Yangon).  I was amazed by my sense of comfort and pleasure, even enjoying my interactions with individuals at the airport.  I was initially also worried about whether there would be difficulty with changing my $100 bills; the country does not yet take credit cards, and it is recommended to bring ‘crisp and new’ $100 bills.  I addressed this concern with Metta and Reiki and it went well.  One time my taxi driver had no idea where to take me and had little English comprehension; he drove to the side of the road and sat for nearly 15 minutes; I focused on my breath and brought mindfulness  to the experience of being in that taxi at that particular time in that particular circumstance and remained ‘peaceful and at ease’.  At times I wandered around the city of Yangon (probably the only American woman there) not knowing where I was heading and finding a wonderful flow to that
 adventure; I even wound up finding a neighborhood festival and was an honored guest being fed wonderful delicacies and having many photos taken with the participants (especially the beautiful children).

I am grateful to this experience.  I truly believe that with this new confidence about traveling while being ‘peaceful and at ease’, additional parts of the world are now calling to me!