yes, yes, I have returned....if anyone is out there, my apologies for not continuing after the near-pacaderym collisions in Chiang Mai...travels end and 'life', or so it seems, returns...and with it crowded neighborhoods, ghastly rents, double shifts filled with dreams of a far off land that doesn't really exist...everything exists everywhere...all of our problems, our challenges, our passions, our dislikes...all the emotional, mental, physical turmoil, pleasures and pain is not a figment of our situation, it is who we are...and we are who we choose to be...

everything changes and nothing stays the same, and the sun rises and the full moon sets on the horizon; the lizard bathes in the warm sun in the desert, and shit happens that is painful and transformation and healing (eventually, yes, it will) takes place...

hard drives crash and dvds filled with photos get scratched in transport and weeks worth of photos remain hidden...maybe next year...

many photos included in the slideshow at right...from misty forests in Castle Rock State Park in California to sunsets at Tokyo Narita airport, to Angkor Wat, islands and villages and hot, dusty streets of Thailand...enjoy, immerse, and share...

accept all, be attached to nothing...

sorry to report no photos of the latest happy events, but today had two near collisions while trucking along on my pastel pink bicycle (with bell and basket) through the (relatively) calm and organized streets of Chiang Mai...the first event on my way to the school where I am taking another Thai Massage course, those damned car doors...it is a universal phenomenon that individuals DO NOT look when opening car doors into streams of oncoming traffic...Luckily i swerved at the same moment as the backlog of motorcycles and scooters behind me...whew...and the latest fun adventure, i narrowly missed getting sideswiped by - yes, get this - an elephant. Dirty bastard was just lumbering along, trying to sneak his trunk into the corner pad thai stand when no one was looking, and backed up,... almost into me. Now, had that happened, I am sure i would have been the worse for wear, but at least would have had a pretty good story behind the scars.

..okay, i know you would probably love to hear about the shooting stars above the ocean, the private yoga room in the jungle that i practiced in last week, and the hike through the forest to an overlook that had serious incentive pre-installed - pause to catch your breath and a swarm of mosquitos that darkened the sky descended upon every inch of sweat-soaked flesh. (there were piles of tennis shoes, minus the laces, from the latest victims along the trail)...yes, i'm sure you would love to read about that, but i forgot that my journal so use your imagination, and don't forget the vertical roads!