This Memorial Day, Lauryn traveled to Fort Lauderdale for a four day bellydance convention and was blessed to learn from some masters in the art form: John Compton, Artemis Mourat, Dalia Carella, Ariellah, Anasma, Unmata, Yasmeena Mimi, Tjarda (the Netherlands), Nanda Najla (Brazil), Yuki and Masami (Japan), Kilma Farias (Brazil), Arish Lam (Puerto Rico), Aepril Schaile, and Aradia.
Lauryn had great plans for writing a Memorial Day blog post honoring the veterans and military of our country, but due to several mishaps in her travels, she returned home later than anticipated and jumped right in to a three day intensive on Modern Dance with Margi Cole of the Dance COLEctive (Chicago).
A week late, here are some Memorial Day reflections with an extra twist.
Do you know a someone in the military or a veteran? If so, consider doing Naikan on this person:
What has this person given me or my country?
What have I given this person?
What harm could I have caused this person?
Recently, the Asala Center lost a friend---a highly decorated veteran, Larry Wood. Larry served multiple tours in Iraq and saved the lives of many colleagues, earning him great military honors. In honor of Larry's life, please take a moment to think not only of those who are abroad serving their country but also those who have returned and are dealing with the aftermath of combat. Is there anything you can do today to honor those people? While this blog is late, we should continue to recognize the service of our military beyond the days that we relax in honor of them.
Memorial Day often also brings us the mixed blessing of travel. After I found myself through plane delays, plane malfunctions, standby seating, and late-night travel, I tried to calm my nerves with Travel Naikan. I searched to see what the flight attendants were doing for me, even if I was cranky or inconvenienced. As I started to do these exercises, I found myself incredibly grateful that I was able to put the money down to fly instead of drive, grateful that they had taken the time to check for safety in the plane so we didn't wreck, and grateful that many of the airline workers still managed to be polite amidst some very cranky passengers.
At the end of the day, I got where I needed to get safely, and that was the most important thing.
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