No blogs for a while

No blogs for a while.... why? Partly due to busy-ness, partly because of the nature of inspiration. Maybe this poem will help to illustrate the point:

Inspiration comes like a butterfly landing in my palm,
As I see it's charming intricate delicate pattern it starts to flutter,
My mind utters, trying to grasp what I beheld,
Asking questions and analyzing...
Maybe it was 'this or 'that'...
And while I look for description it takes flight and passes to a less inquisitive soul than I,
Who doesn't try to posess beauty with his eye,
Or trap the butterfly with his words no sir,
You miss so much when you disturb the butterfly with your mind words.

The last 2 weeks in Vietnam have seen several visits from inspiration's butterfly, but how to transmit that to you? You are not here and the nature of experience is largely non-verbal! But words do carry something, so I try. As Ronan Keating said, 'it's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away' (remember boyzone - BOYZONE. the zone of boys. BOYZONE........ boyzone).

Riiiiiggghhhht.... where was i...?

We travelled into south Vietnam from Cambodia along the Mekong Delta and caught a flight to north Vietnam. Last week we were in Ba Be national park, a place so beautiful that for about an hour straight during a walk through the park I thought entirely in poetry. Effortlessly. Would have loved to have shared it with you, but by the time we reached a point where I could write we were on a very bumpy car journey which made writing impossible. I contented myself with the realisation that the experience would forever dwell within me, through me. Interestingly, while we were driving through the same national park it seemed far less beautiful than when we walked through it. So much detail was missed through increasing our speed of movement. The sound of chirping chicks by a gentle stream replaced with the cacophany of a roaring engine and slamming suspension. The uglyness of my immediate surroundings juxtaposed with the beauty of the natural world, like when you're sat in the Lake District and a military plane rips through the sky, defiling the sound-world. No longer was I thinking in poetry, my mind seemed to reflect the uglyness of my surroundings, becoming metal and pollution such that the delicate flower of poetry could not blossom... observing this phenomenon within myself, some realisations occurred.

The faster you move, the further away you are from the moment.

There can be no presence without stillness.

We must maintain pure surroundings to keep a pure mind.

Only those who are liberated from the material world can have an immaculate mind in an ugly environment. Think lotus flower (are there any Buddhists in the hiz-ouse?)

It is very easy to destroy something beautiful and very diificult to maintain something beautiful.

And finally, self evaluation is proof of the existence of a higher self.

Please tell me what you feel. God willing, when we meet in person i'd love to learn from your experience.

Below: the lake in Ba Be national park;

Us in a boat enjoying the scenery