Back In NZ....
It has taken me days to get adjusted to being in Kohukohu again.
Coming from the dry thin air of the mountains of Colorado, the humidity level of a beachside, subtropical town in New Zealand felt like someone forgot to close the steam shower door...
The air felt thick to breathe, and my hair frizzes and curls.
On the good side, I do not have to moisturize my body, as I have to do after each shower in Colorado...
When the sun is out and shining brightly, it is as pretty as a picture here...
But when it is raining, the air gets chilly and everything looks grey.... And it feels as if the gods of nature are angry.... As angry as some people living here....
In the one week since I arrived, I've noticed a neighbor screaming and yelling at her husband at the top of her lungs.... We've witnessed a house burnt to the ground, and noticed more disabled and paralyzed people in Kerikeri than I ever did before....
It's made me wonder.....
The season is turning cool and in the mornings, the harbor is completely covered in mist, making the place feel almost unreal to me....
But from the windows of my bedroom, while warm and covered in a fluffy duvet, I enjoy looking at the distant mist.... It conjures up images of old Chinese watercolor paintings.....
To ease my transition, I spend most of my time painting in the studio.
I am preparing for an art show, and in order to help the paintings dry faster, I am running the dehumidifier in my studio twenty-four seven....
The food is always good here in NZ.... The Salmon is the tastiest I've ever had.... The vegetables still have the sweetness and juiciness of summer left in them.... They will turn more watery as winter takes hold of this part of the earth..... And even more expensive....
Once, I read an article in the weekend section of the NZ Herald, in which a British woman who moved to NZ with her family, described how shockingly expensive it is to live in NZ....
She said that her food bills in NZ, are four or five times higher than they were in London....
She said she could never have imagined the prices of food to be so high.....
She said people in Britain would protest in the streets if food ever got to be this expensive.... (oh, and she was living in Auckland, where the food is much less expensive than it is in the Far North, where we reside)
I agree with her..... My normal weekly groceries in a regular (non organic) supermarket in Kerikeri, amounts to what I would pay if I were to shop at a gourmet, high end grocery, buying only organic and imported food, in the USA.
Just to give you an example, red, yellow and green peppers, (which here in NZ are called Capsicums) during the winters, cost as much as $4.25 EACH...
It takes four or more peppers to make a salad, making the salad $20, just in capsicum cost....
These prices always makes me wonder how in every single country all over Asia, the cost of fresh produce is dirt cheap....
How can they grow juicy and delicious vegetables in India, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, even in Japan.... And everywhere else in Asia, for very little....
Is our culture getting too expensive, too burdened with high employment costs... With too many taxes and strict employment laws.... Too burdened with liability issues... With distribution and transportation costs..... To provide us with basic food staples at a reasonable price?......
I sometimes think that maybe financial market collapses, that occur every few years, and real estate prices collapsing, all serve to keep the prices of things at a reasonable level...
Houses would be even more expensive than they are now, if there were no periodic pullbacks in prices....
My time in the studio has been well spent.
I enjoy the progress of my art and love what I am doing.
I stopped posting half finished images of my art, after some email exchanges that I had with some collectors, who could not envision the direction I was going with the paintings, and canceled their orders..... From now on, I will ONLY post what I have completed.
When I reflect on all the sad sights that I have seen since we first arrived in NZ, on the fire of the farmhouse, the disabled and severely paralyzed people that I noticed, these were the thoughts of my Higher Spirit Guide, that came into my mind:
"Your eyes, the body's eyes, are not really capable of sight.
You see what is in your mind,
And your mind is full of perceptions and ideas.
You see something where there is nothing,
And you see nothing where there is unity...
You see the space between your own body,
And all other things,
And you believe that you are isolated, separated and alone...
You see a space between other bodies,
Which seem to be walking separately,
And you BELIEVE in the space between bodies...
You see the space between bodies and objects
As an element of separation.
It is NOT...
You call this sight, or vision,
But it is nothing but wrong perception
That originated when you started 'naming' things...
And their true essence was lost to you......
Things, objects and bodies, are not masses,
Occupying space.
They are energies and vibrations...
They are manifested Love vibrations...
Think of reality, as if it were a vegetable soup...
The carrots only seem to be separated from the onions or the peas...
But in reality they are not really separated by the liquid.
The liquid is NOT a separating agent,
It is what makes the soup one and whole...
So it is with you and your brothers and sisters on this earth...
The space that seems to be between you, is the UNITY of all things
And only personalities seem to be different...
When you move fully into your higher personality,
You will achieve higher spiritual evolution and understanding,
And more will be revealed to you..."
Coming from the dry thin air of the mountains of Colorado, the humidity level of a beachside, subtropical town in New Zealand felt like someone forgot to close the steam shower door...
The air felt thick to breathe, and my hair frizzes and curls.
On the good side, I do not have to moisturize my body, as I have to do after each shower in Colorado...
When the sun is out and shining brightly, it is as pretty as a picture here...
But when it is raining, the air gets chilly and everything looks grey.... And it feels as if the gods of nature are angry.... As angry as some people living here....
In the one week since I arrived, I've noticed a neighbor screaming and yelling at her husband at the top of her lungs.... We've witnessed a house burnt to the ground, and noticed more disabled and paralyzed people in Kerikeri than I ever did before....
It's made me wonder.....
The season is turning cool and in the mornings, the harbor is completely covered in mist, making the place feel almost unreal to me....
But from the windows of my bedroom, while warm and covered in a fluffy duvet, I enjoy looking at the distant mist.... It conjures up images of old Chinese watercolor paintings.....
To ease my transition, I spend most of my time painting in the studio.
I am preparing for an art show, and in order to help the paintings dry faster, I am running the dehumidifier in my studio twenty-four seven....
The food is always good here in NZ.... The Salmon is the tastiest I've ever had.... The vegetables still have the sweetness and juiciness of summer left in them.... They will turn more watery as winter takes hold of this part of the earth..... And even more expensive....
Once, I read an article in the weekend section of the NZ Herald, in which a British woman who moved to NZ with her family, described how shockingly expensive it is to live in NZ....
She said that her food bills in NZ, are four or five times higher than they were in London....
She said she could never have imagined the prices of food to be so high.....
She said people in Britain would protest in the streets if food ever got to be this expensive.... (oh, and she was living in Auckland, where the food is much less expensive than it is in the Far North, where we reside)
I agree with her..... My normal weekly groceries in a regular (non organic) supermarket in Kerikeri, amounts to what I would pay if I were to shop at a gourmet, high end grocery, buying only organic and imported food, in the USA.
Just to give you an example, red, yellow and green peppers, (which here in NZ are called Capsicums) during the winters, cost as much as $4.25 EACH...
It takes four or more peppers to make a salad, making the salad $20, just in capsicum cost....
These prices always makes me wonder how in every single country all over Asia, the cost of fresh produce is dirt cheap....
How can they grow juicy and delicious vegetables in India, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, even in Japan.... And everywhere else in Asia, for very little....
Is our culture getting too expensive, too burdened with high employment costs... With too many taxes and strict employment laws.... Too burdened with liability issues... With distribution and transportation costs..... To provide us with basic food staples at a reasonable price?......
I sometimes think that maybe financial market collapses, that occur every few years, and real estate prices collapsing, all serve to keep the prices of things at a reasonable level...
Houses would be even more expensive than they are now, if there were no periodic pullbacks in prices....
My time in the studio has been well spent.
I enjoy the progress of my art and love what I am doing.
I stopped posting half finished images of my art, after some email exchanges that I had with some collectors, who could not envision the direction I was going with the paintings, and canceled their orders..... From now on, I will ONLY post what I have completed.
When I reflect on all the sad sights that I have seen since we first arrived in NZ, on the fire of the farmhouse, the disabled and severely paralyzed people that I noticed, these were the thoughts of my Higher Spirit Guide, that came into my mind:
"Your eyes, the body's eyes, are not really capable of sight.
You see what is in your mind,
And your mind is full of perceptions and ideas.
You see something where there is nothing,
And you see nothing where there is unity...
You see the space between your own body,
And all other things,
And you believe that you are isolated, separated and alone...
You see a space between other bodies,
Which seem to be walking separately,
And you BELIEVE in the space between bodies...
You see the space between bodies and objects
As an element of separation.
It is NOT...
You call this sight, or vision,
But it is nothing but wrong perception
That originated when you started 'naming' things...
And their true essence was lost to you......
Things, objects and bodies, are not masses,
Occupying space.
They are energies and vibrations...
They are manifested Love vibrations...
Think of reality, as if it were a vegetable soup...
The carrots only seem to be separated from the onions or the peas...
But in reality they are not really separated by the liquid.
The liquid is NOT a separating agent,
It is what makes the soup one and whole...
So it is with you and your brothers and sisters on this earth...
The space that seems to be between you, is the UNITY of all things
And only personalities seem to be different...
When you move fully into your higher personality,
You will achieve higher spiritual evolution and understanding,
And more will be revealed to you..."
