Here are some word clouds

- Sky above and dirt below
- Desert, dusty, windy, dry
- High altitude, endless views
- Fantastic sunsets, turquoise, tan, and pinky peach
- Red chilis hanging from the porch & pinon pine nuts
- Tumble weeds, Prickly Pear Cactus, Cachina Cactus (Cholla)
- Mariachis
- Spiritual, Solitude
- Native Americans, Native healers

The Land of Enchantment, The Land of New Mexico...

Under the Sycamore tree a golden mantle appears to me, a place of light without thought. Softened eyes, they become cross eyed and floating. Left brain silent. Under the sycamore tree, whole sky above me is blessed. A pearl sits on the mantle, we are surrounded by golden radiance. The crown chakra looks down to the center. Spirit is watching the seat of my mind. There is a golden aura about me and the room of the pearl is spacious. It sees the outside and inside at once. The internal mind illuminated, the external world received. Five senses are energized. "Oh, look at you down there, fire center, you are tense. You are excited to share the news, like a child. You are welcome to share it."

On Sunday we went into the cave at Las Huertas and meditated for several hours... I feel spiders crawling towards me. A young girl piles up bricks shutting us into the cave, playfully kicking up dust; we can't breathe. The cold damp air made we want to urinate. Eyes open or closed in total blackness, they invent a faint light - illuminating the brown stones. A loud buzzing sound comes to my ears. My body contracts and opens, fear and release coming in waves. My mouth grows big; I see every tooth and the cracks between teeth. My taste is exquisite, including the small drop of pine sap I licked hours ago. I am disoriented, swimming, fetal. Poisonous gasses are choking me. There are two paths, one of them leading to a dead end. My flashlight stops working. I poke my stick in any direction like a blind man - the room has grown larger, inches have magnified to the length of my entire arm. Death, subtly, every moment you visit me, but in the light you are invisible. In the darkness I can see you. I'm saying "yes" to my fear and exhale welcoming you. I'm not talking for hours and still the incense is burning.

Rose and I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl yesterday morning (Aug 30th) after many emotional hours of pushing and learning how to let baby out. Rose felt completely bewildered and confused what was happening to her. Progress ebbed and flowed - Frank Cook always tells me that life comes in waves - the contractions too. I was scared, especially in the last few moments of labor, but felt confident and focused. Rose was exhausted, crying, and pleading for help. She says it was 'like walking up a ladder during a tidal wave; when you don't know what muscles you have down there, you don't know what you are pushing. There's no rest - just constant effort. I wanted to go to the hospital but I felt I had no energy to speak."

Before returning home, Frank and I visited Jemez and San Antonio Hot Springs. Before bathing, he prays, "For the person I am now and the person I will become." Water hemlock, spikenard, and sister ivy twist around our ankles on our walk up. The trail, covered with steam and an aura of sulphur, tells us the earth is breathing here.

We put our whole bodies into the cave. I "Om" three times and put my feet deeper into the source, into an unknown, dark, clammy crack in the rock where hot water gushes. Minerals bubble up through this opening from deep within.

Hours later, we drive the rough terrain to San Antonio Hot Springs. We pass beneath "The Father Stone" and Frank says, "Spend three days here eating wild plants and they will talk to you..."

"The vitality of the plant begins to dissipate moments after it is picked," says Green Light at the Wyoming Rainbow Nationals, 2008. "So I eat plants the way animals do, with my teeth."

"I healed myself with plants from the Amazon," says Aubrey Bamdad, "after falling from a horse and crushing my ankle 8,000 feet high in the Andes Mountains. They said I would never walk again. I was bedridden for several months at my family home in New Jersey before I insisted on leaving the nest and taking a trip to Maui. I progressed from bed to wheelchair, then crutches to crane, and finally, I was free."

I was sitting in Hong Kong airport, mid-march equinox, listening to ambient Frank Sinatra Christmas songs. With two meal vouchers in my pocket to a nice Chinese restaurant overlooking the hazy, humid, green tropical mountains of Hong Kong Island. It reminds me of Asheville in the summer. Yesterday was an adventure to say the least! As we watched mechanics repair the wing of our plane in Los Angeles, the clock slowly tick-tocked until I missed my connecting flight. Finally they changed planes and changed gates. But a broken down bus in front of the gate prevented the new plane from entering its parking spot. So they changed gates and buses again and gave us some free potato chips. One of the cross-eyed flight attendants pacified the crowd by singing love songs from the deep south.

Finally in the sky en route to Hong Kong, weather conditions rerouted us to Taipei for fueling (click here for how to avoid jet lag). I arrived at 1am, missed my connection to Bangladesh, and spent a restful nights sleep in a beautiful hotel right at the Hong Kong airport. The airline gave us a nice breakfast and I sat on balcony/garden outside my room enjoying the humid air. The moisture is refreshing after a few months of the high desert in Albuquerque.

Hong Kong airport is high tech, clean, and the architecture is beautiful, light and airy. Even though it’s cloudy I feel refreshed. There are fun shops without feeling like a mall. It’s cosmopolitan; I’ve seen people from all continents (except that only penguins live in Antartica). Best of all, I have two meal vouchers and there are lots of nice restaurants.

Here are the highlights of Hong Kong and four delicious days in Bangladesh.

Honey Dew Smoothie with Aloe Vera Jelly (HK Airport)

Other recipes coming soon:
Century Old Egg (HK Airport)
Ginger Chips (Westin Hotel, Dhaka)
Ginger Orange Juice (Westin Hotel Dhaka)
Bottle Gourd and Asparagus (Personal Creation!)

We climbed the Deccan Plateau, our driver blasting Hindi and Hip Hop, while overhead, tropical, moist trees encroached the new super-highway connecting Bombay to Pune. I felt comfortable, easy, and at home. Somehow, I've become as easy in India as the USA, they both seem beautiful, exotic, familiar and full of surprises.

We arrived a month early and eager to spend time with Ayurvedic doctors, in herb gardens, and bookstores. We toured a wonderful charitable hospital in the center of Pune offering services to the poor. Everywhere we went, our hosts were gracious and offered us perspective on Ayurveda in the land of its birth. All in all, Pune was a profound experience. With a more complete picture of the breadth and many different styles of practicing Ayurveda, I felt I emerged from Pune with a more clear perspective of my own unique gifts and personality as an practitioner.

What follows are some of the specific moments and stories that left their impression on me.

Today, Father Roy picked dogwood fruits and ate them. They were sweet and we were surprised. Figs ripen next to the church. Tasty acorns fall and we bake them into cornbread. Overhead, monarch butterflies are heading south. And grapes hang from a vine, reaching for the sky.

Oren and I walk to a hilltop near New Paltz. This feels like a holy ground to us. In the setting sun mountains darken and become silhouettes. He leaves for Yeshiva next week.

In Boston, Guy Mendilow rehearses classical and folk music traditions from around the world. Shari and I are experimenting with pesto lasagna topped with almonds. Their cat Basil overhears us talking about the her childhood home, New Orleans.

It’s early September, the world’s fair in Jamaica Plain ushers in the autumn season to the sounds of Latino, Brazilian, and world fusion music. A baker is selling home made donuts and leaves are already changing colors. Apple orchards can hardly bear the weight of their fruits.

The Fung Wah bus pulls into Boston and the city is crisp, clean. We pass my college dorm and a bank downtown where I once worked. I buy a new 'Charlie Card' for the red line subway to Central Square, a samosa from Shalimar’s and walk up Norfolk to JB’s house. It’s great to see Mindy again and their sweet little one growing up starting to speak.

Kevin Sheehan introduces his new book to me, "A Leader Becomes a Leader". We sit in Cafe Algiers enjoying toasted pita bread with apricot jam and mint tea. He quotes Thoreau, “In an imperfect work, time is an ingredient. In a perfect work, time is not an ingredient.” Cooking, ayurveda. I think, "devotion to the sacred lessons of those two arts really can become 'perfect'".

I’m struggling in the Northeast with the illusion of wanting to be successful. And remembering a radical, powerful act of healing - looking out the window for a half hour during sunset. Then remembering Dr. Lad: Life begins in the belly, the placenta. Not a heart button, not a head button, a belly button. Belly, the place of our being. And when we come home to ourselves, we come home to our belly. That is how we relax in the city.

Some new links

http://www.joyfulbelly.com
* My favorite addition to Joyful Belly this month is the "Threads of Cooking"
* Or, try a search on "vata-" for recipes that pacify vata.

http://www.guymendilow.com/
* Guy Mendilow's Band

http://www.yogaspiritstudios.com/KimValeri.htm
* Valeri Kim’s Yoga Teacher Training

http://www.flashearth.com
* Search for Pune, India and zoom in. We'll be living there until mid-December, studying ayurveda with our teacher Dr. Lad. With a great faith we are peaceful and confident in our journey to India.

Keep in Touch,
Love and Light,
Blessings on our Journeys,
-Joseph

Paintings are subtle like altars. Modern art never appealed to me before but revisiting the Guggenheim and MOMA of New York the aura of the paintings reveals more than the picture itself.

If you haven't yet seen the "bodies exhibit" of cadavers frozen in time hold your heart during the exhibition; it's eerie but fascinating. The inside of the body is an important journey for meditation.

Our living bodies are made of water and sweetness. We were so happy to stay with Anya and Raghu. She says that pink lets the good energy in but without the bad energy. It makes me think of a painting by Georgie O'keefe.

Dogwoods, elderberries, black cherries, and crab apples were fruiting in central park. In the cracks of the sidewalk, beautiful medicines and grains are growing. Amaranth, mugworts, smartweeds.

I ate the best cannoli of my life (again) at cafe Reggio after visiting a Chinese market under the brooklyn bridge.

As I return to my family home I recognize old patterns. I trust myself and believe I've already shed the layers and try not to be afraid. If I look closer at my surroundings I realize I am "seeing myself". Bless the reminders.

Large Italian American Families. Grandpa is doing okay after his heart operation; he comes over for dinner and we trade recipes like eggplant parmesian. As I spend time with him I am also reminded the only way to experience true love is by loving my family; because true loves eventually become family...

The next month I'll be traveling to Boston, New York City, Pennsylvania, and New Paltz. Let me know if you'd like to enjoy a meal or a few moments together.

Some new links...

Joyful Belly Journal
* Handouts for ayurvedic diet / food / notes
* Ayurveda for New York City, Asheville
* Highlights of Ayurvedic / Yoga Psychology

Joyful Belly
* My favorite Joyful Belly recipe this month is saffron and walnut bread!
* New Joyful Belly recipes include ayurveda notes about health.

Love,
Joseph

The climate was wet and rainy, but a beautiful river ran through camp. We spent the fourth of July at the rainbow gathering in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. Frank Cook, Green Light, Seven Song, and Corey Pine gave daily plant walks and through them and ayurveda I'm learning new tools to approach plants energetically.

As I return east, ayurveda, plants, and mountain music come home together in one place inside of me. Rose and I arrived two weeks ago in Asheville. We're staying at Turtle and Julie's, cooking meals with them and sampling Turtle's amazing collection of meads. Julie is finishing her last year of Chinese Medicine and is already a great practitioner. If you're in town give us a call and come over for dinner! Then we're driving up to Virginia, New Jersey and New York around July 31st.

My sister Jenn gave birth to a healthy baby boy (John Kellen). My parent flew out to Arizona immediately. Grandpa is recovering from a major heart operation but is lively and spirited. We've had many health problems in the family this year so keep us in your hearts.

Lot's of new and exciting knowledge. Here's a list of some to check out using google...
- Dennis Klocek
- The Web that has no Weaver by Ted J. Kaptchuk
- Aghora by Robert Svoboda
- Kung Fu Hustle (a funny movie)
- Homemade pizza with pumpkin sauce and fresh fennel (posted on joyfulbelly.com)
- http://www.plantwalk.com - a website we created to sign up for plant walks by state

Please send news and love and keep in touch. May we get a chance to cook a meal together in the kitchen. That would be beautiful. We ate corn pudding at a restaurant this morning; something I'd like to try if anyone's feeling adventurous enough.

Lots of love,
Blessings,
Joseph