Art By Tali Landsman

It was a sunny day and we were cycling in rural China, when our Chinese guide cycled near me and started a conversation. He told me that even though China is relaxing its strict communist policies and allowing people to own their own homes and apartments, the dream of home ownership is not available to most people. In the past fifty years, many who have an entrepreneurial spirit, have emerged from forced poverty, which was caused by the fact that the communist party took away people's inheritances and all private property, and did not allow people to save money or to own private property. But unlike those entrepreneurs who have been quickly amassing their riches, many students and young adults have nothing but a job that pays very little and which is never secure. I asked Jason, our Chinese guide, what about buying a small apartment and later selling it for profit, if he could find an apartment in a place that is up and coming... He has a good chance of enjoying his own place to

The Pope went down to Mexico, he was looking for a soul to steal... Que Pasa you are saying? What is it you're saying? Why would the Pope go down to Mexico, looking for a soul to steal, When Mexico is already the biggest Catholic state in the world after Brazil? Well grab a tea and biscuits and let me tell you how down went the deal. Up in the Vatican where the food is sublime and the churches are shining in gold, The Pope opened up the record books. Not those books which lists the sins of men, but those which pay the bills... He noticed that donations from Mexico, were slim to say the least And so he invited his closest bishop buddies, to talk and have a feast. Let me reassure you, that they did not eat the thin wafers representing the body of Christ, This is Italy after all... So the wine was flowing and the chef was cooking up a treat. The Pope was told that the Mexicans were dropping the faith like pigeons. No, they were not converting to another religion... Nor were they becom

Since English is not my first language, I often ask my husband Jules to proof my writings before (or after) I post them on my blogs. This morning after I turned over my iPad to Jules to proof my post, he turned to me and asked in somewhat of an annoyed tone: "Is there a reason WHY you finish EVERY one of your sentences with a dot dot dot?" Instead of answering him, I asked him why did I detect anger in his voice.... He said: "Because it is NOT grammatically correct to do so!" Of course I KNOW that it is not grammatically correct to finish my sentences with dots....... So why do I do it...... I do it because I want my writings to SOUND as if I were SPEAKING to you.... It is my brushstroke..... My musical notes..... My voice trailing off into the distance..... I do it because I do not want to sound like a "Know-It-All" self assured asshole.... I do it because I want to provoke you to think.... To imagine... To dream.... To contemplate... To consider.....and

Today I saw in the news a video documenting a small crab who amputated his own injured arm, to save itself. Of course the media made a direct correlation to the story of the extreme hiker Aron Ralston, who cut off his own arm to free himself from a boulder that his hand was trapped under, in the Utah canyons. The crab tried to grab the newly born chicks of a booby hen parent, who fought the attempt with its hard beak. During the battle, one of the crab's claws was badly injured, the crab retreated, and after assessing its condition, it used its healthy claw to chop off the injured claw. The narrator assured us that unlike the extreme hiker in the Utah canyon, that crabs can and do regenerate their missing parts. For an adult crab, it takes about one year to completely regrow its claw. Claw regrowth is much faster in young crabs or other species of crabs. So I watched this and I wondered.... Why is that that crabs can regrow their claws, and we humans are not as advanced as crabs? W

Over a week ago, I read in the blog of an artist that I truly enjoy, that she was told by many of her friends that she should not trust anybody nowadays... Her friend even added: "Don't trust even me!" It made me sad to read this. If I were sitting with a friend who told me this, I would ask them if this is really the kind of world that he wanted to live in?.... A world in which you cannot trust anybody?.... And if you do NOT want to live in this kind of world, then do not say that you yourself are not trustworthy. I am not naive.... And being a wealthy person, I do have a lot to lose... But I trust MANY people almost all the time. My neighbors have the keys to my houses. My accountant has blank checks to my bank accounts. When we renovated our houses in New Zealand, we trusted the builders, the painters, and all the sub contractors even though we were not there to verify their hourly charges. I trust my husband and my friends and I trust my gardener to do his work every

Many spiritual seekers often confessed to me that they feel lonely walking the path of spirituality.....trying to discover the Truth in a world that is so NOT interested in anything beyond the material. Yes... The world we seem to live in, the material world, is only interested in youth, money, power, politics, conflict, disasters, shallow entertainment and appearances. Wisely, most spiritual seekers know that following in the path of organized religions, following old traditions and dogmas, does not encourage the mind to become open and free, and so they resort to sifting through bits of Truths, found in wise books, to attending seminars and workshops, and mostly to gaining knowledge through inner access by meditation. It may at first feel lonely to turn away from a materialistic thought system that seems to be the mainstream way of thinking, and to go it alone... But I would like to reassure you that you are NOT alone, and that it only seems lonely at first, but as you will come to

It was another sunny day on the ski slopes. Jules and I found a quiet run that was long and empty, and we skied it a few times. On one of our runs, I waited for Jules by the ski lift, but he did not show up, so I decided to ride the lift up and to see if I could spot him from above. He was wearing a very distinctive ski hat that we'd bought in Nepal, and a spring blue ski outfit, so I was pretty sure that I would be able to see where he was. The line at the ski lift was long.... It was a busy Friday after all... And it was also Saint Patrick's Day, so the mountain had more visitors than usual. By the time I spotted Jules coming to the ski lift, I already was at the top of the line, so we rode the lift on separate chairs. On my ride up, I joined a ski instructor who was teaching two fifteen years old girls how to ski. I quietly listened to their conversation. The ski instructor was actually teaching the two teens how to race. She spoke about the slalom racing course and what to

Today I feel like telling you a joke that I got in an email from Israel: Since many women are often unable to find the perfect husband, someone had the idea to open a large department store and to offer husbands for sale... It was a lovely air conditioned department store, which was spread over six floors with quiet escalators leading you to all six levels. The only trick to shopping at this department store, was that you cannot change your mind and go back down, once you went to a higher floor. You had to chose a man from the men available for sale on the floor you were on... Let us follow and join one lovely single woman who entered the first floor.... In the first floor she saw many men, all dressed elegantly sitting on armchairs around the beautiful store. The sign said: "On this floor you will find men who all have great jobs with a very good income." She liked the idea of being married to a man with a good income,..... But she wanted much more from a marriage.... And sh

It is expensive to live and to own two houses in very remote parts of the earth. Beside the normal cost of maintaining the homes, there is the added cost of flying to the other side of the world. This is why most people own their second homes in the same country, or within a distance that could be covered in a few short hours' flight. Many people who live in New Zealand for six months out of the year, come only once per year and stay for the whole summer, thus only paying for the expensive flights once per year. Because we love to ski in Colorado, we divide our summers in NZ, and we stay in NZ for two periods of three months per year instead. We have always looked for ways to save money on flights. One of our methods was to own Star Alliance credit cards, which allow us to accumulate miles which we redeem for free flights. We also used to fly from Denver, thus saving the added cost of the flight from Vail to Denver. And many times we flew for "free" (using air miles) to L

Empress Theodora, Basilica from Ravenna (circa 500′s), tampered with the records of the Bible and removed from the New Testament Bible all references to reincarnation, in which the disciples said that Jesus mentioned that he had worked on the earth before. But if Jesus truly wanted to emphasize that reincarnation was an important lesson to teach, he would have made it clear again and again.... So why did he not elaborate on it....even though he clearly and repeatedly said that death does NOT EXISTS.... And his own life story demonstrated that after being buried in a tomb for three days, he was resurrected and alive. In my own opinion, he did not elaborate much about reincarnation, because it is still part of the cycle of dream of illusions, that is dreamt by those who are not yet ready for full awakening and realization of full reality which is eternal and everlasting. What I mean by this, is that the prospect of Spirit, formlessness, and not embodying a body that could be felt, touche

Some people are afraid of leaving home. They feel safe in their home and familiar surroundings, and feel that if they venture out of their immediate environment, harm can befall them. Those who feel this way, often feel an unexplained anxiety of the unknown, and fear loss of control and unpredictable outcomes. I jokingly think sometimes, that I suffer from the opposite condition... I LOVE to travel and to enjoy new and unpredictable experiences.... And often when we have a few months of no travel planned, I find it a bit hard to get adjusted to the familiarity of home life. This was the case when we got back from our last trip. It took me a few days just to get adjusted to being home... My studio and my art, always help to ground me back into home life. Now that we are home, I am enjoying the beauty and the blessings of this place. I look outside my bedroom window this morning, while I am still sitting in bed.... The mountains are covered with some evergreen trees and dusted with white