Lyn Fuchs's Blog, page 24

Wandering Mystic Meditation From Florence Italy

Basilica of San Miniato al MonteLate afternoon. Light from the western sun strikes the facade of the Basilica of San Miniato high above Florence. The clock moves steadily toward 5:30 PM. Light reflected from the 13th Century windows shimmers against intricately-patterned floors in the nave of the church. A soft wind breathes in from the entrance to the church and brushes past Taddeo Gaddi’s 14th Century frescoes. The breeze finds its way to a window in the sacristy, where it leaves the interi...

Primal Wilderness Rambling From Montana

Oh God! I watched from the riverbank as Hillali, a 64-year-old woman on our trail crew, fell into the rushing waters while attempting to ford them with her pack still on. Now, she lay clutching onto a rock and flailing like an overturned turtle with the weight of her pack pulling her down. This made it nearly impossible to get upright again in the powerful current. She escaped with some help and developed a knarly pumpkin-sized bruise on her hip to show for it.

Yet, that’s what wilderness ofte...

Road Babe Dispatch From Milan Italy

So, there I was at a crossroads - a big crucial decision that will shape and mold who I become, what path I take, and what kind of life I lead. Everything culminated in that precise moment. Should I stay or should I go? As I sat there in the School of Business room 306, staring at my Macro-Economics professor lecturing on some topic that would come up on the midterm, I couldn’t help but feel a sudden burst of outright relief.

This will all make more sense if I tell you that I had been daydream...

Wandering Mystic Meditation From Fredericksburg

“It is well that war is so terrible. Otherwise we should grow too fond of it.” 

~ General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December of 1862

The late Shelby Foote, a Southerner, authored a definitive narrative of the American Civil War in three volumes. He wrote this from the fifties to the seventies. During that period, the centennial of the war was celebrated, but he felt it should be a time of commemoration or even mourning rath...

Smooth Getaway Postcard From Venice

Mysterious, yet so very entrancing. Venice by night may be the most romantic place on earth, or so I was told by the thick accented French in Paris. Delectable enticing Pair-eee had been my previous hangout. Paris is indeed magical but built up somewhat larger than life by imagination and expectation in the tender vision of foreign dreamers. So I ask myself, "Is this also true of Venice Italy?"

Still, I am confident that when I look back on these travels in the future, I will remember them as...

Happiness Is Made In Mexico

Would you like to understand why Mexicans are the happiest folks on earth? Would you like to contract a little of that contagious gusto, rather than follow the herd of gringos who just want a reason and an audience for their misery as they stampede off the dying-with-dignity-but-no-fun cliff. If so, check out the film Hecho En Mexico. This is actually a documentary and a musical - a documentary musical - but it's not dull or gay. Only Mexicans can come up with crazy shit like this. I think it...

Smooth Getaway Postcard From Vienna

When people find out my daughter’s middle name is Vienna, their first question is invariably some version of “You didn’t name her after that mean chick from the Bachelor, did you?”

No. I have never watched the Bachelor. I don’t think the Bachelor is the hottest thing since the big sunflares last month. I couldn’t pick a man out of a nicely dressed, rose-holding line-up. I’m not saying I’m above reality TV. That would clearly be a lie as I’m streaming Real Housewives. I just don’t like the bran...

Wandering Mystic Meditation From Nepal Part III

During my travels in Nepal described in the last post, I spent time volunteering at an orphanage. Here I met a man who administrated a small school in a rural part of the country. He had just started the school up again, after it was shut down by the Maoists during a 10-year conflict in Nepal. This man Surya also set up not-for-profit organizations and worked hard to increase education access for the poor. Just the kind of thing I'd been dreaming of doing myself. He also wanted to admit stude...

Wandering Mystic Meditation From Nepal Part II

The comedy and tragedy that is my life eventually led me on a journey to Kathmandu. Here I soon discovered my destiny to found a global charitable organization helping the children of Nepal, as I noted in the previous post. I will never forget the sensory bombardment that hit me immediately on arrival in Kathmandu.
Streets full of compact cars, mini-buses full of Nepalese and foreigners watching their purses and pockets, motorbikes saddled by drivers who only recently purchased their licenses,...

Wandering Mystic Meditation From Nepal Part I

In every life, I believe there comes a time when we realize that countless incidents, decisions, and factors beyond our control brought us to an exact place. My journey to Nepal and starting the Org4Peace International Helpers began years before I was old enough to know what I wanted in life or even where Nepal was on a map. Like any place I have traveled to, Nepal called out to me but only when I was ready and only when I shut out all the irrelevant dissenting voices that often obstruct a pe...