seorak mountain...happy mountain

christina and i left daegu for the northeastern most corner of south korea (sokcho) at 10am on thursday morning. what was supposed to be a 5.5 hour bus ride turned out to be an 8 hour ride. don't ask me how these things happen. all i can say is "it is korea. you never know what's happening until it's happening. and then when it's vastly different than what you expected, you either fly into a frenzied fit of rage or you roll with it." so, we rolled into sokcho around 6pm. we found a stellar castle of a hotel and then walked straight to the beach, both euphoric to be breathing in the fresh, northern coastal air. we were just going to walk for awhile along the shoreline, but decided to play tag with the waves. the waves caught us and we ended up soaked to the bone!

soft, misty sokcho seashore at night

christina anticipating her gourmet dinner at EMART-UH
our russian castle hotel! the moment we got off the bus in sokcho i saw it across the street and said, "hey, let's stay THERE!!" the price was right and the room had plenty of floor space for yoga, so it became our home away from home for a bit.
we took a 30 minute bus ride from our castle in sokcho to seorak mountain early friday morning. it was CHILLY! we bundled up but still being cold bought some white gloves with little plastic gripper things on the palm sides for 1,000 won ($1) from a woman on the sidewalk. little did we know how important those gloves would be on our climb. i honestly don't know if i could have survived without them!!


early morning light
big buddha
lil' buddha
happy buddha



autumn leaves...
on our way up the mountain, we walked through sinheung temple.
had to pass the scary guys to get inside. christina drank some holy water...i watched.temple wall painting...kuan yin, perhaps?

ulsanbawi rock

is this for real?




yeah, you betcha, that's where we're headed!
fellow traveler...me thinks he had one too many shots of soju on his way up the mountain!
can i stay here forever?
heading higher! it felt like a sudden luxury to have stairs and railings, but after just 5 minutes of slowly scaling the steep staircase and holding on for dear life due to the strongest, whipping wind we'd ever felt, what was once luxury began to feel treacherous and slightly insane!

mountain goat monkey!
wow.
the wind kept gusting out of nowhere, from any direction at any time, threatening to blow us off the mountain like a couple of tumbleweeds! many a time we hit the ground, belly down, to keep from being whisked away.


on top of the world...again!

sweeping view of the east sea
heading back down


after our extraordinary hike we rode the bus back to sokcho and with our legs feeling a bit like jello, we went to the movies to relax! we saw "eagle eye," the only english film besides "mamma mia," which we had both seen already. never in a million years would either of us have paid money to see a movie like that back home, but in korea it is not uncommon to find oneself doing odd things! i had to close my eyes during the plethora of car crashes and way too many gunshots, but overall the plot did hold our attention. after the film we walked across the street and rode a glass elevator to the top of sokcho tower. we saw a whole lot of pretty lights dancing on the water and through the telescope some sassy ballroom dancing lessons taking place. the best part was the conversation we got into with one of the women who worked there. she was eager to speak english and we had questions. being that sokcho is right near the border of north korea, a large community of north korean refugees exists there.
- thanks a million to christina for many of these photos!

sokcho sunrise

before the morning light, we made our way to the beach and sat on the sand with sleep in our eyes.
fingernail moon still smiling bright...





woah.
drinking it in...

- half of these photos compliments of c.b. komapsumnida!!

jeju island

after jennifer's workshop in seoul and her concert at yeungnam university, we decided it was high time for a little rest and relaxation. we got ourselves out of daegu and took the 50 minute flight to jeju island. we spent several days dining like queens, napping whenever we felt even the least bit sleepy, reading by the pool under the shade of the palms, and strolling along the seashore. life slowed way down. days stretched out beyond time. i felt as lucky as lucky could be.

the monstrosity of the hyatt regency
a bird's eye view of the hotel lobby where we ate food like PIZZA, french fries, and caprese paninis and it all actually tasted like the real thing! glorious surprise! a lounge singer and pianist performed great covers one evening. we relaxed down by the fish pond and clapped enthusiastically for them. for a few days i felt as though i'd been transplanted into a completely different world, which granted a deep rejuvenation much needed after almost two months in hustling, bustling, neon korea.
looking down from our balcony, the wedding chapel stands out a bit, eh?!
sheer unprecedented bliss. my morning waffle with mixed berry compote and fresh, homemade whipped cream.
an enormously huge, gorgeous moth-like creature!

a disclaimer about the possibly fatal danger of the staircase down to the black stone beach! if anything it should have been about the overwhelming amount of gigantic spiders in their massive webs that surrounded the walkway, above and on either side. sheesh!
"stairs of death"
mother of all spider webs
mother of all spiders!



i kept seeing bodies, faces, shapes, beings...in the stone walls.



take heed!



any filming site of a famous korean soap opera becomes a place of pilgrimage where people from all over korea come in droves! we could hardly believe our luck that we'd stumbled upon this significant look out spot unknowingly! ;)

surrender

"surrender comes when you no longer ask, 'why is this happening to me?'"

-eckhart tolle
"stillness speaks"

-photo: minnesota storm front - august 2008

resting in the breath

i decided NOT to turn on my computer first thing upon waking. since returning to korea this fall, i've slipped back into that habit more than i care to admit. instead, this morning i found a spot on my plastic, orange couch and sat for 20 minutes, gently guided by jack kornfield's sitting practice meditation. immediately i felt like i was giving myself a giant welcome home hug. i can't tell you how good it felt to just sit and breathe, comforted by jack's kind, familiar voice. although, like clockwork, waves of thinking, planning, and remembering started to roll on through after about five minutes, often accompanied by some pretty strong emotions. i found great refuge in the following acknowledgment and beautiful reminder:

"as you feel the breath, sometimes the background waves become big and an experience will carry you off. when you notice this, you can learn to be mindful of these experiences too in the same way that you acknowledge the breath, you can gently acknowledge or name the experience: planning, remembering, sadness, excitement, or longing, joy, pain or pleasure. be mindful of these waves of experience just as you have the breath. feel it as a whole wave of energy that moves through body and mind. give it space to open or change as it will. and when the wave of energy has passed, take a moment's pause, sense the space of awareness and return gently back to the breath. this breath. this moment. now you can be graciously mindful of the breathing as it comes and goes. centered, still, or you can be graciously mindful of the big waves that come, naming them gently, giving them space to arise in body and mind and pass away as they do. and return to the breath. sit like a buddha at peace in the center of all things. easy. gracious. and wakeful. again and again rest in the breath. again and again notice the waves of experience that rise and fall. rest at peace in the midst of them all."

- quotation from jack kornfield's cd: "guided meditation: six essential practices to cultivate love, awareness, and wisdom"

sanctuary of my childhood

this weekend i have had more time than i've had in quite a while to be on my own with nothing pressing to do. i bounced between envisioning a time of relaxation and stillness at home with long, luxurious yoga sessions, reading for pure enjoyment, curling up for cat naps...OR going on yet another adventure somewhere in the world, for the fifth weekend in a row.

for some reason i could not settle into a calm, decisive place about anything. i just kept feeling waves of restlessness and agitation. there wasn't much content to the feelings, just anxious energy coming and going through my body and mind.

i am a deeply relational, curious person who thrives on being in conversation and relationship with others, who loves to travel and experience the world, but who also requires a rather significant amount of time and space with plenty of stillness. it's been a lifetime of push and pull trying to figure out this dance. living in korea has been a priceless gift because for the most part i have been given generous amounts of unstructured time to make of it what i wish. this has granted me the opportunity to gain a sense of how much time i truly need to carve out for myself to remain balanced and well, and yet there are still times of forgetting. being on the go 24/7 for the last month has reminded me of how important it is to slow down, even during periods of extreme busyness, to take care of myself in a daily way.
so, today after cleaning my apartment from top to bottom, a.k.a. getting grounded and inhabiting my space again after a month of being in and mostly out, i took myself to the woods. walking amidst the golden brown, crimson trees of autumn, i felt renewed access to that place inside that is always well. the challenging energies that had been coursing through me dissipated with each step.

i came across people having picnics on colorful blankets, children playing badminton over imaginary nets. everyone so friendly and kind as i passed by, offering me acorn jelly and a turn at the racket. i felt such joy being outdoors, under the cloudless, silvery blue sky, feet on dirt rather than concrete, that i started to skip and run! i bounded as far as the trail would allow and then collapsed upon the dry, leafy earth, breath heaving in my chest. i felt as though i'd found god or something!
reconnection with well being and joy, earth and sky, body and breath, community and grounded presence within. i guess that IS what the truest sense of god has always felt like to me, ever since i was a very small child spending every possible waking moment in nature....encountering this holy aliveness again and again in birches and cedars, maples and pines, oaks and always, always weeping willows. i remember relating with sky as though we were kin, laying for hours on the grassy earth dreaming up at the clouds, held like a baby...not a care in my soul. the sanctuary of my childhood. a continual "opening of eyes" as an adult.

"that day i saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and i heard the voice of the world speak out,
i knew then, as i had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.
it is the opening of eyes long closed.
it is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
it is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

it is moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
it is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground."

by: david whyte
from: songs for coming home
published in 1984 by: many rivers press