Tho is living here in Bhutan since 2 years and we never managed to have a few days off together, to do a treck !
This sounds a bit strange but it is true, Tho is really quite busy here in Happiness
country…and as he is travelling abroad a lot (for GNH centre) , he really needs to concentrate his time in Bhutan for work. We do one day hikes around Thimphu or Paro allmost every week end, but we never went away just the two of us for a few
days.
Friday was a holliday, so we left Thursday after work, drove to Haa, spent the night (in a great lodge) and part of the next day there and then we hiked from Haa to Paro.
It was so great to be out of the
big city (ha ha for those who think Thimphu is a village…100.000 inhabitants..right ?)…to be together, to be in nature and just to walk !
This morning I drank a really good coffee in Ambiant café, one of
the nicest coffee shops here in Thimphu. Lama Shenpen, a welsh buddhist monk living here since quite a long time, was there as well,
I told him about our hike and he said : uuuh I don’t like to hike, I like big anonomous cities,
little noisy and filthy backstreets, homeless wanderering around ( Lama Shenpen is a great and highly respected Lama doing GREAT social work here in Bhutan) , uuuh…mountains, fresh air uuuh..not my cup of tea!
You have to
know Lama Shenpen to enjoy this answer, certainly I really did enjoy it, as I somehow do understand him and his very special welsh humour.
In nature high up in the mountains we do not really meet suffering that needs to be transformed…or
do we?
There is no place in this world without suffering, without joy !
With every step we can touch our own suffering and nature sometimes gives us the quiet and peace to do this,
With every step we can
also touch our joy and here too nature gives us this wonderful opportunity to be in touch with beauty, love and healing,
With every step we can touch the world’s suffering, natures suffering as well,
With every step we can touch the worlds
, natures joy..
With every step we can transform suffering into joy !
So may be...big cities, noisy back streets....mountain peaks...same taste?
Talking about transforming suffering : I had quite a
painful leg for quite some time,( a year or two)
Whenever I see Artemisia, and believe me it is growing here every where( like Mariuana), I pick some and rub it onto my leg or in the hot stone bath plaster it on my leg…and the pain has allmost
totally gone !
Bhutan has so many healing plants to offer to the world ! …and not only healing plants…....