Art By Tali Landsman

You are, and will forever be, a divine, innocent, invulnerable, loved and eternal spiritual being. Here on this earth, you are having a human experience. It might seem hard at times to be a human, to see everywhere around you the injustices and wars and all the cruelty, and to feel helpless, small and earth bound, but it is NOT true! Those feelings all originated from your ego, which has no real perception of whom you TRULY are, and of your divine potential. Your ego is the one who is small, fearful and limited in every way. But you are NOT your ego. What you see around you, all the injustices, cruelty, limitations, poverty and struggles, are all dreams of guilt and karma that each person has to work through to become liberated.  Your journey on this earth was not meant to be a struggle, but a journey of joy, fun, laughter and creative possibilities. You are not earth-bound, but FREE!!!!! Wouldn't you be delighted to hear that you were wrong? You believed that t

Tokyo to Denver, and then Home to the Rocky Mountains, plus Some Thoughts About Emotional Maturity   Sorry that I have taken a long time since I last wrote.  Coming home after a long trip is always a bit of a mission. It takes time to adjust to the different patterns of the weather, the high altitude of the Rockies, the different time zone and to new ways to spend my days. There are many pluses to being home. They include having lots of time to lounge on the sofa and read books, painting in my studio, daydreaming while looking at the clouds in the big blue sky, and having more control over my food, including weekly visits to our local organic farmers' markets. Here in the mountains of Colorado, summer is the ideal time to enjoy the best peaches I have ever eaten, big and delicious red and orange cherries, and varieties of garden vegetables that you never find in supermarkets. I love the variegated striped long cucumbers a

Sasaguri Henro 88 Temple Foot Pilgrimage, Kyushu Island, Japan When I looked online at possible walks around Fukuoka and its surroundings, there was no mention of a pilgrimage. One day, at our Japanese language school, a teacher mentioned it to us. She also loves hiking, and upon hearing that we walked the 88 Temple Shikoku Henro pilgrimage last year, she told us that in the nearby town of Sasaguri, there is a similar pilgrimage that is much shorter and that we could probably complete in just a few days. I couldn't find much information in English in the way of maps, temple information or details about the pilgrimage to help in our planning, so we decided to take the train from Fukuoka to Sasaguri and visit the information center there. I was hoping that they would have a map or a brochure with some information in English that we could use to plan our walking route. On a sunny weekend, we dressed in hiking clothes and wore our trusty