Chaingmai...2007

A day in Chaingmai can bring a lot of things...so I'm learning. This little girl is sitting outside the temple on top the mountain, chanting and wearing her tribal costume.

The people still come to the temple, hoping for something promising...expecting luck to carry them through the next year. They walk around the gold-painted square center of the temple in reverence to the unknown, deferring to those who have gone before.

And sitting in a park drinking carrot juice can invite a conversation with local monks from the Chiangmai Buddhist Univserity...what is their hope? I asked them. We talked, we shared, we compared. I want them to understand joy and purpose beyond becoming extinct, non-existent, escaping. We have more than that in store for the future! The alternative is no bliss. Reality is sobering. Grace is enlivening.