Happy Holiday Season!

Happy holidays to everyone! To all my friends in all corners of the world, up above, down below, in the middle: I wish you health, and happiness, lots of love from all creatures created by the Almighty, all your dreams to come true and "million things to go your way" as one of the chinese fortune cookies says. Most of all enjoy every day as if it was your first and last day. And be adventurous and curious.

I celebrated Christmas Eve with my father and 12 of my friends. Everyone cooked something delicious and I got lots of sweet goodies from PQ including the profoundly chocolaty chocolate cake. We stuffed ourselves uncounscious. There were pierogi, bigos, barszczyk, herring in oil and sour cream... all the traditional food usually prepared for Christmas. All was very delicious. Everyone brought a unisex present and the Secret Santa delivered them to everyone and we unwrapped them with great joy. As always during such parties conversation was flowing, moods were superbly good and everyone enjoyed themselves. Guests left at 3 am. The next morning I woke up terribly hungry, can you believe! and ate breakfast, went to bed again and then Gosia woke me up at noon to make arrangements for brunch. So Gosia and Rashid came and we ate again! That's what we call Christmas! It was a really nice and relaxing time. Now we are preparing for the New Year's Eve. We have to spend time on festivities now because when the school starts again we'll be running like crazy again and there won't be much time for partying...

Have fun my dear friends, enjoy the New Year's Eve!

P.S. I called my mom recently and she told me my cousin who is looking for a house to buy is having problems in getting anything bceause not much is being built in Poland at the moment, due to the fact that all the construction workers emigrated from Poland. I told her "I know, all Wiesius, Stasius and Rysius are working on my roof!" (that's regarding to what I wrote before)

cold and exams

So I've cought some cold today. It's 10 pm, I have a headache big as an elephant, but I am trying to study for my last two exams on Sunday, sitting in front of my laptop, in my pajamas, wrapped in the now famous bathrobe of the ex's late uncle. I am taking a break from the various famous Chinese practicioners of yore, and chis and yangs and yings... to drink some cammomile/levander tea and write a bit on the blog, to feel close to all of you my friends... It's incredible how important it is to have friends and to feel their presence. Earlier today I was driven to a wall by the school administration (the lack of yin and yang at that school is driving me crazy) and Gosia called me and we chatted and I felt so much better, in my state of cold and school aggravation... The aggravation basically comes from the fact that the woman who deals with financial aid is on maternity leave and nobody else deals with her stuff. When I complained about it today to the registrar's office I heard that "Rita went on emergency maternity leave and what do you want me to do now?!" I laughed out loud. Out of the blue it was an emergency! For the entire nine months Rita was thinking she was getting prone to excessive weight in the belly area... and voila! one day a baby comes out and she needs to be rushed to ER! I am just kidding. The things people say at that school to cover up the lack of organization or incompetence just make me laugh... It's this type of laugh when you laugh because there's just nothing else you can do (rece opadaja). Well Sunday is the last day and I am gone. I applied for the other school which I think will be much better - the one which is run by the Taoist priest who is a famous Chinese medicine doctor. Also, my prayers have been answered and he himself is offering, at his private clinic, a class on Chinese herbs for a small group of students. I asked heavens to send me a guide, someone who will teach a class without going through these silly tests and papers to write which are basically a waste of time. And here it is. By word of mouth I learned about the class (it will be two years, meeting one weekend out of every month) and I went to his clinic and saw him on Wednesday and told him I can be curled up in the corner, quiet as a mouse, not bothering anybody in any way, if he can just please, please let me be part of that class? The doctor offers it rarely and requires that the students have the knowledge of the Chinese medicine theory and they are certified in acupuncture. I am a total green leaf/tender foot but he said I can be part of the class! He rarely offers the class so it's incredible luck that he is offering it to start in January. I am in it! I am taking the risk of not knowing entirely what he will be talking about but I believe in the power of the mind which wants to be educated for the benefit of other beings, so I can try and see what comes out of it. Which means that I will have totally no time for anything except school and work, but what the heck - you live only once and that opportunity may not come again. No, I take it back: you don't live only once... but it's a long story... I also want to find a Shaman who will tell me other methods of healing, based in the indigenous Indian ways, but that will take time it seems... If I can't find anyone here, I will have to return to Cuzco one day to learn from Shaman Jesus. He is the only person I have met so far from whom I could learn, I feel... In any case the adventure with healing methods of ancient medical systems is thrilling. If only the aggravation of administration coming from the modern corporate systems is taken away I will be able to peacefully turn my mind completely to the ancient ways... I found some interesting books lately at the Rubin Museum of Tibetan Art. There's a bookstore inside the museum (and beautiful works of Tibetan art: tanghkas, jewelry, woven fabric old and new...) and I found there "Medicine Buddha Teachings" by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep." I am putting this information on the blog for anyone interested, also in translating them to Polish (for Wanda and Zbyszek). I said sometime ago that I can't recently read anything written by Westerners about spiritual advancement (and health because spiritual advencement has a lot to do with health, both physical and mental), especially regarding the beliefs connected to Eastern philosophies so I was really glad to find something in English but written by people rooted in Eastern philosophy. Whenever I go to a "regular" bookstore and take anything "best-seller in spirituality, sold in 3 million copies" it's so infentile and so exegeratted, etc., etc. that I put it down, disgusted. I guess people really want to educate themselves on the issue of the mind, and how it works, on its conncection to Soul and body, etc. so it's really good that there's interest in this field, but it's sad that what they are served to learn from is of such poor quality... But I still can find some books which are about helping onself with various things, or mostly seeing reality in its proper way (more about it soon) but which are not "self-help" books but books on attaining wisdom, I would say. I run away from anything labeled "self-help" as fast as my legs allow me... OK, time to go back to chi and it's accolytes. Isn't it cool that after I attain this vast knowledge of how the body, mind and Soul work, if you wish I will be able to help you, all my dear friends, with all aches and pains (to the extend that your karma lets me so do good deeds only and don't acquire bad karma)?

O, I totally forgot to mention that I met with Przemek, my new roof-top friend, for beer one night at one of the Jackson Hts. Mexican bars where even waitresses don't speak English. I really like these places - I feel transported into the land of the Maya. We had lot's of fun watching soccer game on the tv above the bar and taking part in the festive Mexican atmoshpere. Cheers!