I'm sitting in the Albuquerque airport waiting to fly back to Oakland with Robert and Fumiko.

This was the perfect business trip--fun and productive.  Things could not have gone any better. 

After talking to a few people, we found someone to lead our sweat lodge for the November tour.  We are going to have a full day of art, ceremony, sweat, music, and feasting.

With perfect timing, Fumiko and I met the people from Access to Santa Fe within two blocks and finalized the walking tour.

Flight's called.  Gotta go. 

I'm in Santa Fe New Mexico with Robert and Fumiko.  We got in on Saturday night.  We're scouting for our all-Japanese tour in November.  Yesterday we met my old friend, Jaye Oliver, the graphic designer, and she drove us around.

My favorite place here is the International Folk Art Museum--filled with astonishing crafts from around the world.  I love it!  I feel like making art again.

I bought a pair of wedding dolls--black skin and white clothes.  We all had tea on Canyon Road the art gallery area at a tiny coffee shop, Cafe des Artistes, owned by a Parisian man.  He turned a garage into this shop!  We felt very cozy as the snow began to fall in Santa FE!

I have to go.  We are meeting Jaye to drive out to talk to Raven, a man who leads sweat lodges--one of the sacred Native American ceremonies.  We want to offer a sweat lodge on our tour, and it will be interesting to go out and meet him on the Poaque Pueblo which is 20 minutes north of Santa Fe.  An adventure today.  We had planned to continue to Taos, higher in the mountains, but it may not be a good idea with the ice, snow, and winds up there.  We'll see. 

Yesterday we had another meeting of our EFT group (emotional freedom technique at www.emofree.com). There were 8 of us--all women.  We practiced the work until 7 and then broke for a potluck feast--quiche, turkey chili, bread, cheese, salad, wine and homemade lemon cake.  Lynn Fielder stayed overnight so she could go back into SF to attend the next day's Parkinson's conference. 

We learned a lot in our EFT practice.  I like the new "What if..." statements.  I used it today with a client..."What if I could have a stable income and keep developing my passion for life transition-work?"  The What if statement really helps bridge that gap between feeling stuck in a conflict and not knowing what new steps could get us closer to our goal.

Tonigh I'm cleaning out my office and tidying up old business.  Feels good, but I'm tired.  I still need to find that sweat lodge site to let them know Fumiko, Robert, and I will be in Santa Fe next week to prepare for our fall Japanese tour.

I've been having a lot of international conversations.  I love the man who wrote from Romania to tell me about the new library of spiritual books (about 600) that he and his friends have put together.  He said they had about 10 visitors a day.  I think I would love to visit Romania--a Romanian contractor and his all-Romanian crew remodeled my house and Gunther and Eliza's house last year.  We love Romanians!

I've been talking to Felix Brabander about the synchronicity symposium June 10th in Amsterdam.

A man from China just emailed and said he liked this blog!  How wonderful to have friends in China.

Patricia Caldwell, a life coach I interviewed last year, wrote to say hi from London!

A man named Nima wrote to tell me he is translating my books in Iran.  They don't have copywrite laws there, but he's doing it on his own, I guess, and sent me a beautiful picture of himself and his wife.  They look very poetic.

An old acquaintance from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, just wrote to say she had some synchronicities.

It's a wild, wild world out there, isn't it, Cat Stevens!

Good night for now.  Have to go fold my laundry. 

It's Sunday, and we still have a cold rain coming down outside.  I've been using the time to clean out a kitchen drawer full of rubber bands, garbage bag ties, birthday candles, kitchen magnets, recylcled paper for grocery lists, and keys to forgotten locks.

I'm also printing recipes off the food network channel and putting holes in to file in my red kitchen binder.  I made some extra copies for Gunther and Eliza of turkety-chili, oven-roasted halibut, flounder with red pepper cream and asparagus, and steamed pork wonton dumplings.  I invited them all over for dinner tonight because Eliza's mom, Carmen, is up here from San Diego.

Robert and I made the best dinner last night:  grilled butterflied leg of lamb, small steamed artichokes, eggplan sauteed with a Chinese garlic sauce, and rice with lemon and dill (Rainey gave me that recipe last week after our walk.)

 I guess this is my food blog today!  Maintaining my recipes, watching the food network, and trying out recipes, and having people over to eat them, makes me realize that if I were asked what my hobbies are, I guess I'd have to say cooking!

This is a much happier weekend than last when I drove myself crazy being miserable--focusing on an old story.  After two days, I vividly saw how I can turn a switch in my head and make myself miserable, and then just as easily, get off it by not dwelling on the negative.  Hmmm.

The rain is pounding on my study window.  It's dark, but I still have work to finish.

I love the lovely sound of rain, I always have.

This last weekend I went to see Matchpoint (by Woody Allen).  It is set in London, and the theme is being lucky and getting what we "think" we want.  And the cost of that.

I am also reading Snobs, a novel by Julian Fellows on the identical theme--set in Englad and portraying the English upper classes and those who throw themselves at this citadel of exclusivity.  Oddly, I am always fascinated by these same themes--I, who have always considered myself to be particularly plebian and "democratic." Of course, I have my own snobberies and elitism.   I love English movies and English novels.  I watched a TV special on Windsor Castle the other night.  Fascinating display of protocol and tradition. I actually went to Windsor Castle when I visited England the first time in 1970.  I wanted to see the famous doll house there--doll houses being another fascination when you get to see a good one. My boyfriend at the time, John, took me for tea, and I had my first clotted cream.  Fabulous!  The day, the cream, John, and the doll house.

But tonight, I'm printing labels for my brochures.  How extraordinarily mundane.  But a comforting task on a rainy night.