// December 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Perhaps I was harsh with the STFU December, but I was honest. If you cannot add value then shut it.
At Ossumniss we are not going to shut it. For the month of December we are going to challenge ourselves to a NABLOWRIMO-style challenge and post all 31 days. We will post content that hopefully adds value to your day.
This challenge will be easy. Gwen Bell has also challenged her social media friends to do a “best of” month and has 31 blog post prompts listed on her site. We will do daily content and if we really like one of her prompts or get stuck for an idea of our own we will use one of hers. Today is a prompt of hers that I really like… WHAT WAS YOUR BEST TRIP OF ’09?
This is hands down an easy response, our two-week road trip in Sept/Oct from Colorado to California to Arizona over to New Mexico and back to Colorado. I did a photo blog chronicling some of what we experienced and suppose this is a good forum to say why. Sadly I cannot give all the whys of how auspicious this journey was, but most of them.
First off the main purpose of the trip was to 1) attend teachings with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama 2) spend time with my best friend and her young daughter and 3) have some fun with my husband away from the mundane.
singing bowl I picked up at the teachings
The teachings were powerful and unexpected. I have attended several public speaking engagements with HHDL before but not teachings. I was surprised that we did initiations and felt like I was in a right place with my spiritual practice to partake. We did the Amitabha Initiation, the Medicine Budhha Initiation, and I took layman vows while a few in attendance chose to take the Bodhisatva vows. I know I am nowhere as cool as those who took the Bodhisatva vows but was overcome with joy that they were in the right place to take that step and that I was present to witness. The overall experience put me at ease with the world and my place in it.
Husband playing with our #1 niece
Being back in Los Angeles was nice for a few days. That is my hometown. My husband and I used the time away from the teachings to visit my old haunts, eat good food, and play at the beach. I can make anyone love L. A. because there is so much love and diversity in that city. You just need to know where to look. We only stayed a couple of days as to not infringe on my best friend’s Yom Kippur observance… so we headed south to the beaches near San Diego. That was fun for a short time but we were aching to move on and it wasn’t all that warm at the beach.
hubby finishing meditation at Buddha with stupa behind him
We headed on over to camp just north of Sedona, AZ in the canyon. We were lucky and given a nice campsite along Oak Creek the first night for free. I had been to Sedona before but had never visited the stupa there. It is not the easiest thing to find but when we did we could hardly contain ourselves… it was an Amitabha stupa. Amitabha, just like the first initiation we took with HHDL. Woah! We visited at sunset one day and sunrise the next. Making offerings and meditation there were also very nice. Another highlight of Sedona was Slide Rock park, I had only been in the summer months and the water was in the 60s but I spent more time in it that I did at the beach. It was cold but so much fun.
only balloons we saw at festival were demo helium ones that wanted to fly away
After Sedona we made our way out to New Mexico and stayed in the mountains just east of the city. In town the balloon festival was just starting and all kinds of stuff was going on. We got to meet the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII, go to a bunch of garage sales, hit up Trader Joe’s, and go to the balloon festival for the evening glow. Unfortunately it was too windy so no balloons launched and we were tired… so we drove through the night to make it home. And rested on that last day.
The best part of the trip is a project us here at Ossumniss began working on while on the road. We need a few more things to develop but like our title states… it will be OSSUM (AWESOME). We’ll look to the start of the new year to announce it.
One other amazing part of the trip, the food. We came back thinner and stronger than we left. We ate simply and well. A lot of fresh produce. We went to Trader Joe’s and bought pre-cooked grain in a bag and pre-cooked legumes in a bag and would put them on the car dash to heat up. They made great lunches and dinners with a touch of cilantro and lime. I will list three great restaurants along the way that can satisfy the most gourmand vegans and provided some great desserts.
1. Mani’s Bakery (Los Angeles) on Fairfax between Wilshire and 3rd
2. D’Lish Very Vegetarian (Sedona) on Hwy 89A
3. Annapurna World Vegetarian Cafe (Alburqueque) near the university… they also have a Aryuvedic cooking school here
Overall it was a great trip that I think will impact us for the rest of our lives. Between spirituality and the developing project coming out of it we will fondly look on these pictures with huge smiles.
