Art By Tali Landsman

My sister Dary Rees (on the right) and myself (on the left)

Recently I spoke to a friend about the three month long foot pilgrimage that we decided to take this spring in Japan. "What if you are not fit enough to walk so long every day?," she asked. "So we will take it easy and walk slower." I answered. "Won't you be left behind?" "By whom?" "By the group, those you are walking with." she said. "There is no group. It is only Jules and I and we have no strict daily goal, no reservations, nowhere we are committed to be. If we walk slowly, so be it." I answered.

EVERYTHING that this ego-based world tells you will bring you happiness, vitality and joy, is wrong. And I do mean EVERYTHING. Most people who walk the path of love towards higher awareness know that money, riches, fame, recognition, career, or athletic prowess, do not really bring you happiness, vitality, or joy. Most people believe that FAMILY brings you joy, and that it is THE most important thing in life. In Hebrew, there is a term called "Nachat;" in Yiddish, it is pronounced "Nachas." It is a term that refers to the joy, blessings, and pride that one gets from one's children and grandchildren. When one imagines Nachas, one has an image of a kind, ever loving, always forgiving grandmother in a rocking chair, perhaps knitting, with all her children and grandchildren at her feet, all healthy, happy, playing nice and being lovely. This is of course just another one of the world's illusions or fantasies.  For most people, family brings MORE misery, not Nach...

I received this comment about my last post, in which I spoke about several abundance principles: "Good one Tali,  I'm reading your posts with interest.  I’m poor by most peoples' standards but happy in that I have found things I love doing.  They don’t generate vast sums, in fact nothing?...  Maybe I have an abundance block? I just don’t want money for myself.  Just to work on my environmental projects.  Am I not self centered enough?.... Cheers, M.  P.S., I used to live in Kohukohu but now I am in Wanganui, but hoping to set up a beekeeping business on the west coast of Auckland, where my heart is." This is what I wrote back to M.: "Dear M, Yes, of course I remember you.  I have often asked how you are doing and if there were any news about you, so I am delighted that you dropped me a note and that you are reading my posts. I believe that there is no need to be poor. You can shift the situation and embrace other reality-possibilities for yoursel...

So much money, you wouldn't know what to do with it.... Wait, did I say money? I meant to say water. SO much water, you wouldn't know what do do with it.... Actually, the two are very, very similar... Both reflect an abundance principle that I want to illustrate here with a story. Very early this morning, after a second day and night of constant rain, Jules stirred in the bed and joked: "My, my, your prayers for rain have been answered in spades! If we get any more water, we'll have to GIVE bottles of water to everyone who comes to visit. Here, take a few bottles of water with you. no, I insist, please take some water! We'll have to say to anyone passing by." Since I moved to rural New Zealand, many of the metaphysical principles that I understood only in theory while being a young city girl, have become very clear to me. In my last post, I mentioned our lack of water, since we have had to empty our big concrete water tank in order to repair it. In our area of...