Abiding in Hope

Hope is a little town that time, and seemingly everyone else, forgot. It’s home to just under six thousand people, and nestled in the Cascade mountains, bordered by the Fraser and Coquihalla rivers. Quite the beautiful place. Its claim to fame, apart from being rich fodder for numerous puns, is that the first Rambo movie was filmed here. It’s not exactly a cultural Mecca. Mostly it’s just been a great place to walk and relax.
It hasn’t been without entertainment, however. Hope’s accommodations are all 50’s era motels, and staying in the highest rated lodgings still means staying in a 50’s area motel. While the interior of my room has been updated, the depth of the walls has not, and I get a front seat concert of all the things that go on in hotel rooms. It’s good prep for India, and just part of the adventure of traveling in general.
One of the reasons that I enjoy traveling is that it takes one out of their comfort zone, and forces the mind to either adapt to new ways of thinking or doing, or end up doing a lot of suffering. It’s very difficult to be content while insisting the world conforms to “the way I’ve always done it”. So in traveling, one learns a vast number of ways to see and do things, and becomes more at home in the world, wherever it may be.
So I hope you enjoy the pictures, and I’ll see you next when I’m beyond Hope!-D

Author: mettatsunami

In 2009 I was working full time in medicine, and living a life that was alienated from what I truly valued. While volunteering with a local hospice, I began to wonder: "What would I do differently if I had six months to live?". This began the impetus to change direction. While it has been a case of two steps forward, one step back in many ways, there has still been slow movement in the direction of a more authentic life. Since the pivotal decision to change direction, I have been a Buddhist nun, returned to lay life, changed Buddhist schools, returned to medicine part time, and then full time, quit again, traveled extensively, trained in yoga, spent time in several Buddhist monasteries, and am in the process of how to live according with Buddhist and yogic practice and values, and how to streamline this life into something worthwhile. In the Theravadan Buddhist practice, one of the daily reflections is "Has my practice born fruit with freedom or insight, so that at the end of my life, I need not feel ashamed when questioned by my spiritual companions?". That is my practice. My goal in this blog is to share the journey along the way. View all posts by mettatsunami

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