Its a lovely day in Sarasota as I embark on a heartfelt adventure; gathering together all that is required for my upcoming trip to South Korea. I’ll be there as artist in residence at the Ureuk World Music House and I look forward to sharing music and art with their community in the city of Chungju. You are reading my first go at a blog so I welcome you aboard this learning/adventure curve. Check out the “Only Hearts” link above to peruse the “Only Hearts” Art/Peace Project that Cybele and I will be introducing to students and educators in Chungju; and stay tuned.
Before I begin uploads on my Asian trip I’m posting a place-holder drawing from my diary: Fiesta day in the Mayan village, Santa Catarina Palopo. This beautiful gem on Lake Atitlan in the highlands of Guatemala was home for a while. I was there taking in the vistas, sitting from sunrise to sunset when in my meditation mode, enjoying warmhearted and sometimes challenging villagers, making flutes with village kids, keeping clear of the shaman who was royally miffed that the flute-making kids cut down his bamboo stash, appreciating a housing/food budget of under $25 a month, and designing/building a solar heated community shower system funded by UNICEF and the Government of Guatemala. Definitely a paradise, until getting in the cross-hairs of politicos in the widening guerrilla warfare taking root. OMG . . . amazing how fast the completed shower system transmuted to me in the calaboose!!! Was definitely a time to center and meditate!!!! So grateful to Babette, Jose, Paco, Raphael, and the support team that got me out!!!
Most important lesson learned is how ones naivete can be a life-saver in some circumstances, how friends can rally to support and nurture a brother on the path, and what it really is like to be a pawn between two opposing ideological camps with defined objectives in a civil conflict. Gratitude that fate placed the military on my side.
