The soaring impulse

Held in the light

2009-11-03T11:11:00.005+11:00

Dear Friends,

When I was in Swaziland this year, I wrote to you about one of my dear friends.... a young beautiful girl named Yvonne.

I received word today that Yvonne is very sick and has been hospitalised again. Im not sure if she has tuberculosis or whether its a recurrence of aspiration pneumonia.

What i do know is that she is one of this worlds quiet angels.... She lives and loves through her smile, in one of the most wounded corners of our blue planet. I have been blessed so many times by the soft grace which dwells gently in those brown eyes. Even now when I think of her, radiant love shimmers across me like sunlight across the water....

I ask you to take a moment to read her story....here

And join with me as I hold her in the light.

Love the world into change,

Maithri

Climb every Mountain - A poetics of Transformation

2009-10-29T09:42:00.013+11:00

Taking a photo in Malolotja Swaziland

"My soul looks back and wonders, how I got over?" - Clara Ward (Spiritual)

Almost every day I receive an email from someone telling me about the personal challenges which they are facing. There is a deep need in us to not only surmount our obstacles, but to do it with as much grace as we can.

Let me tell you a little story.

By the time I reached my final year of high school, I knew that I wanted to one day become a doctor. I wanted to help people, and i thought that medicine would be a beautiful concrete way of doing just that.

At the time in order to receive an interview for the medical course in my state you needed to finish in the 98th percentile of all those who sat the Victorian Certificate of Education. I fell short scoring 96.25.....

For a while it seemed that these 1.75 percentage points were going to separate me from my dreams. But like all good stories, there was far more for me to learn....

I enrolled in Biomedical Science and majored in physiology and anatomy. I loved the course and moreso loved all the kindred spirits which I met along the way...some who are still my treasured friends almost 14 years later.

One of those friends was a beautiful, hilarious science/arts student named Susan. ;) She had long flowing blonde hair and was constantly being stalked and receiving proposals of marriage.. lol (you know im right Suze!)...

Our friendship was based on deep mutual respect and so much laughter.... To this day there is no one in the world who can make me laugh like Susan...

One day I walked into the library and Suze was wearing a hijab.... I've written about it here before... I never said a word....not because i didnt deeply respect her courage and faith, but because i knew she'd be receiving enough and more questions from the rest of the anglo-Christian world about becoming a muslim... all she needed from me was a friend to laugh with....

Today Susan is one of the most respected sociologists in Australia. She is a lecturer, feminist, wife of the amazingly generous and intelligent Waleed Aly, mother of two little angels and consummate humanitarian.

She was star of award winning television program Salam cafe and a few years back was given the honour of "Muslim of the year" for her amazing gift at raising awareness, dispelling myths, and bringing cultures together.

But I digress.... (dont get me talking about my friends.....i'll never stop lol!)

When i reached the end of my Biomedical Science degree I heard that the University of Melbourne was offering a post graduate medical degree.

The entrance criteria were as you can imagine very strict and required, among other things, applicants to sit a 7 hour examination which covered university level biochemistry, biology, physics....a psychological assesment (how i passed that part still remains a mystery lol)...and several essay questions.

I spent months preparing and somehow managed to achieve the mark required to gain an interview with the entrance committee at the Medical Faculty...

I'll never forget the night before the entrance interview.... I was a 'nervous wreck'... I kept thinking of how much work i had put in to get to this point and imagined a thousand worst case scenarios.... The more I thought about it, the more anxious I became...

Needing to laugh.... I rang Susan. Little did we know that the gift she would give me during that little phone conversation would change the trajectory of my life...

This is the story she told me:

There was once a mountaineer who had scaled the highest mountains in the world.

But there was one mountain in an exotic land, which he had never been able to climb.

He had tried, over and over again but somehow it seemed the mountain always defeated him.

One cold day he was in a village at the base of the mountain and he gazed up in a wonder at this great adversary which he had never been able to conquer.

As he scanned the mountain side with his binoculars, something caught his eye.

There at the top of the mountain, far beyond the level to which he had ever been able to ascend, was a pregnant woman with a child on her back.

There too, were children and barefoot old men.

He was dumbfounded. He went to a villager nearby and said in anger "How on earth can a pregnant woman, and children climb a mountain which an experienced mountaineer with all the modern equipment in the world has never been able to climb."

The man smiled and said to him "Sir, when you look at this mountain you see a foe. An enemy. Something which you must defeat. And so the mountain always wins.

But when the people of this village look at that same mountain, we see our dear friend. And it is the mountain that helps us to climb."

I went into the interview the next day and saw in the eyes of the selection committee, not my critics, but my friends, waiting to help me fulfill the dream which had been placed in my heart by the universe....

One week later I received a letter congratulating me on my entrance into medicine.

The rest, as they say, is history....

All of us face deep personal struggles.... Many far more profound than simply getting into a course, or achieving success. We live in a wounded world, and brokenness is part and parcel of the journey of life.

But what if the mountain before you, is actually there to help you climb?

What if the 'monsters' in your life are actually friends in disguise....there to help you unfold into the fullness of your own being?

What if by changing our minds about that which is bane and that which is blessing, we change the world....

I look around my little untidy office here in this hospital, and everywhere the light touches, there is proof.... Proof that dreams are possible.

Proof that it is the mountain that carried me every step of the way.

My warmest love to you,

Maithri

A little note from Maithri

2009-10-21T11:59:00.004+11:00

I've not been a very good blogger of late ;).... So much is happening in my life... I thank you my friends for your kind patience and I look forward to visiting you all very soon.....

I found these words which I wrote a couple of years ago.... and they seemed to say what its in
my heart right now.

They are my humble gift to you this day.

Winged love to you all, Maithri

Picture Credits

Beloved,

There are days when nothing seems right. When every shell you pick up on the winding shore is broken. When the silken treasure slips through your fingers too quickly. When comforts are empty. And the world is noise.

On those jagged edged days, when the wind is screaming for a reason only she understands. And you find yourself all alone.

Turn your face to the sun.

There is goodness in the world, that even the river of tears cannot erase.

There is love in the world, that the numbed armies of fear can not destroy.

Sometimes that goodness is everywhere apparent. It pours from the heart of every moment. From the light of every smile.

On those soft days, love hides in the eaves to drop like sweet honey on your forehead and sings her lilting lullabies in the arms of the winds.

But on some days, Beloved. On days like today....

We need to look, to see.

So turn your face to the sun.

Even when she is nowhere to be seen.

Go inside yourself. Find a speck, a splinter of beauty to be grateful for.
'Yes', the day has worn you. And 'Yes' our mistakes have been so many.

But say 'Thank you' anyway.

Take account of all that is in your possession.

A mind. A heart. A body.

A life that breathes, even if for just one more day.

Now count the eyes that have smiled
at you on your wild journey,
the hands that have held you tenderly,
the ears that have listened,
the prayers that have been made on your behalf.

And whisper your 'Thank you' again.

Count the sky that has watched you grow
with His painted eyes,
The heaving waves that find their echo
in the tides of your breathing,
The little birds that have sung
you their songs,
The stars which have been a lamp
to your path,
and are your
rightful inheritance.

Count unexpected laughter,
Count undeserved grace,
Count Passion and Love making and Dreams yet to be born,
And bow your head and say 'thank you',

Now count the lives who still need your light,

The hungry, the sick, the helpless,
Count the children who will die today
and imagine if with the breath of your body
you could help just
one.

Turn your face to the sun,
And know yourself as a child of the light.

You are the Goodness that cannot be extinguished,
The love that burns through the darkest night.

And perhaps,
In turning
You will see what i have seen,

that this day where everything seemed wrong,
was not your curse,

It was your gift,

Your chance...
To find inside yourself a forgotten 'thank you',

To smile in the face of the grim suppressors,

To stand in the heart of the glowering darkness
and turn your face to the sun.

Copyright - Maithri Goonetilleke 2008

A Wave of Change

2009-10-14T10:59:00.005+11:00

Dear Friends,

This last month and a half has been one stupendously exciting ride.... Possible Dreams International has exploded in a way which I never dreamed it could.....

We've already got people running marathons, holding trivia nights, concerts, dinners (this will be the subject of my next post...stay tuned), casual clothes days etc etc for the gracious people of Swaziland...who live in a country with the highest rate of death and the lowest life expectancy in the entire world.

What a priveledge it is to witness the generosity and compassion of ordinary human beings around the world joining hands to build bridges of tangible hope across the deep and viscerally real wounds of poverty, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and endemic disease.

Its not just the monetary donations which inspire. Its the heartfelt desire of people around the world to become ambassadors of possiblity. To find a way, however small, of committing themselves to the work of bringing hope to their yet unmet brothers and sisters in despair around the world.

One of the most touching emails i've received was from a young 12 year old girl in New Delhi asking me if there was anyway that she too could 'become part of the dream.'

I told her to hold the people of the world in her heart.... And to use whatever gifts she had, in whatever way she could to bring joy into the lives of those around her....

She is making greeting cards, some of which will be sent to impoverished people in Swaziland and others which will go to poor people in the slums of New Delhi.

One of our board members and my beautiful friend Jacquelyn Eisenberg, has put together this youtube video for PDI.... I wanted to share it with you today and ask that if you feel it appropriate you might find a place for it on your blog or website.... So that others might learn about the work we do for those in need....and be reminded that it truly is possible for ordinary people to make a difference in this world.

My love to you all,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiYhEpMnfDg

A Song for the Wintertime...

2009-10-09T19:29:00.005+11:00

Photo Credits

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."
~ Albert Camus

Stories of Hope: And there was water at Mambane...

2009-10-05T12:51:00.009+11:00

As long as I live I will remember the day that water flowed for the first time in the community of Mambane.

A rural community high in the Lebombo mountains, 3000 people in the Mambane region have depended on one single water source for decades....(pictured below)

Women and children spend hours each day walking to this little pool of 'water' in a river bed which has been dry for well over a decade.

They wait patiently in line for hours and then proceed to fill their water container full of thick mud.

It is because of this lack of clean running water, that so many thousands of children die each year of diarrheal disease in Swaziland and throughout SubSaharan Africa.

In May of 2009, I shared with the readers of this website the desperate need of the Mambane community for clean water.

And you responded.....

In total 12 thousand US dollars (approximately half of which came from donations to this website) was raised by the Possible Dreams International team which paid for:

Surveying by the department of Geology for bore water.

The drilling of a bore hole in Mambane

Purchase of an electrical transformer to provide a sustainable energy source

Purchase of An electric water pump

Purchase of A 10 thousand litre water tank

On the day when the water flowed.... people came from miles around to see the beautiful sight which they had prayed for, for so many years.

An old Grandmother who has taught 70 AIDS orphans each day under the arms of a great Boabab tree.... knelt by the water pump and wept....saying "In my whole life.... I have never seen running water."

Your gift to the people of Mambane is priceless. Immeasurable in its depth and beauty.

Because of you lives will be saved.

Because you suffering will be spared.

Because of you an entire community living in the shackles of extreme poverty, have seen once again the flickering light of hope. They have remembered that they are not alone.

My gratitude to you, my friend, knows no bounds.

Together we have built a bridge.... across whose arms tangible love has come streaming into the lives of our brothers and sisters living in the fray of life.

I invite you to help us continue this work of love by becoming an ambassador of Possible Dreams International.

Together we will love the world into change,

We already are,

Maithri

Trust Thyself

2009-10-05T00:06:00.004+11:00

Dearest Friends,

Thank you as always for all your emails. I am well and at peace.

I have neglected blogging for the last little while simply because I have been so busy with our new non profit organisation Possible Dreams International .

Every single day I am overwhelmed by the generosity and compassion of people whom I've never met as they join hands around the world to help those in deep and desperate need.

It feels as though from what started as ripples of hope in a stream of despair, a wild and beautiful wave of love has been born.

I am simply holding on to its luminous wings and enjoying the ride....

As promised, over the next few days you will hear a few more stories of Swaziland....

But for today, let me leave you with these words by Emerson which I have always, always loved....

May the wings of love attend to your every human need,

Maithri

Make Compassion your religion

2009-09-29T18:36:00.001+10:00

I love this video, so I'm devoting an entire post to it... Compassion can be learned... And we can all learn something from the example of people like Linda Hamilton.

Love the world into change,

Maithri

Aiding the Fallen

Shared via AddThis

The Gifts of the Passionate Life

2009-09-23T00:12:00.007+10:00

Photo Credits - Stewart Weir

Dear Friends,

I'm setting a thousand painted 'thank you's' free tonight....I dont know just how they will reach you....But with my whole heart, I pray they will....

Perhaps you will find them in little boats sailing across the moonlit waters, or tied to the string of a kite with the stars in his eyes....

I want you to know how grateful I am for you. For the gift of your friendship. Your words. Your tenderness, love and strength.

I am doing well.

Discovering an unshakeable strength, a jewelled serenity, which I never knew I had.

Over the course of the next week I want to share some stories of deep abiding hope with you.... taken from my work in Swaziland.

But for now, in this candle-lit moment, let me leave with you a few gifts... from my heart to yours....

Here is a poem, a song and a photograph....

Each one... a hand pointing to the moon....

Souvenirs left by a mighty sea on the winding shore....

The gifts of the passionate life....

My love to you, Maithri

Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way
than this:

where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYkz30RL_GU

The Soaring Impulse

2009-09-17T00:19:00.009+10:00

"One can never consent to creep,
When one feels the impulse to soar". - Helen Keller

One blue sky day about six years ago, when I was still in my final years of medical school, something happened to me. Something which caused my whole world to fall in little tear drops around my feet. It was a day which I will never forget as long as I live. I can still feel the door locking behind me, see myself pulling every curtain closed and shutting out the light. Feel the surface of the pillow into which I wept, until I could weep no more.

This week, as unimaginable as it would seem that history should repeat itself, something very similar to that event, almost its mirror image, happened in my life...

And yet to my own deep surprise. My reaction thus far has been completely different.

6 years ago, my world crumbled around me. I was immobilised by pain. Falling head first into an abyss of hopelesness from which I thought I would never rise.

But somehow, with the help of my beautiful family and friends, I did rise.

Discovering joy and meaning in my life which i never thought possible.

Since that time, at some bump or juncture in this broken road, I guess Maithri must have grown up. ;)

Because today, whilst my brow may be bloodied, my head is unbowed.

I am no longer content to be victimised by life.

I know now in the very cells of my being, that nothing that happens to me, can diminish me.

My treasure, is the person that I am.

A very imperfect person. A wounded person.

But someone who dares to inhabit their lives fully. Who loves with the entireity of his being.

Who inspite of all his scars tries each day to understand instead of standing in judgement, to include instead of exclude, to hope rather than despair.

James Allen said "Circumstances dont make a man. They reveal him." And today I understand what he means.

The darkness which we experience is merely a canvass upon which the firelight of our souls can dance.

I have once again been offered a dark invitation, to reach inside; to unfold and unfurl, like the petals of the jasmine; like the stars of the milky way.

And this time, I am ready...

So in this night time of my soul... I raise my eyes to the starry skies....

and say "Yes".

Yes to the music. Yes to the mystery. Yes to what is, and what will be.

I will not break.

I will not creep.

I was born to soar.

My love to you, Maithri.

A Million Points of Light

2009-09-09T23:15:00.010+10:00

Its overwhelming sometimes.

The quiet feeling that sneaks underneath the window pane and settles around the shoulders of my life.

It comes in the broken moments. Sudden as unexpected laughter, warm as my sisters eyes. Its voice dripping honey in my ears, rooting my feet once again to the suppliant earth.

My words are not big enough to name it... So i call it Grace.

Undeserved, unwarranted,...Even when i am unaware of its presence, It falls like snow. Covering the world in the all embracing arms of love.

This week as we have taken another step in our journey together as a community of compassion, I have been overwhelmed by the grace that each of you have shown me.

I have found it in your loving words and your willingness to give whatever it is that you can of your time and talents to serve our brothers and sisters in deep and immediate need in broken corners of this world.

We are a million points of light.

In spite of all the cynicism and fear that rises around us each day... I believe in us.

In the power that lies within our own unvarnished humanity.

In the circle that cannot be broken.

And when we join our wounded hands...
Turning away from apathy a little more each day,
Until the beating heart of possibility becomes more present in our lives,

We find that we truly can make a difference in the lives of those struggling in the myre of extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and endemic disease.

Whats more we remember that as different as we may seem, separateness is a mirage.... a trick of the mind....

We are one family. Joined by the fire of living.

On this quiet night the world is alive with gracious possibility...

I need not say anymore,

for even the little stars, that watch over us like silent sentinels,

are whispering...

"We can"

http://www.possibledreamsinternational.org/

In love, Maithri

You've gotta laugh!!

2009-09-04T20:34:00.003+10:00

Thank you for your beautiful responses to my last few posts... I appreciate each of you so very much!

Have you added our blog at possible dreams international to your blog list?.... Our amazing team members are sending me some incredibly powerful posts which I hope everyone of you will have a chance to read....Engage with them and you will find yourself in the company of my heroes in life...Isnt blogging a miracle?

www.possibledreamsinternational.org/blog/

I will get around to visiting blogs and reading your beautiful words again this week....I'll also try and respond to as many of your beautiful comments and emails as I can....Thanks for your patience my friends...

In other news...

This cracked me up!!! ;) lol (this is what happens when you dont come to dinner when mum calls you ;) )

Justice for All

2009-09-03T13:12:00.009+10:00

"My God calls to me in the morning dew, the song of the universe knows my name.... I raise my voice for justice.... I believe" - Sweet Honey in the Rock

Friends,

The last few days have been so deeply inspiring to our team at Possible Dreams International. The response to our new organisation has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you all so very much for your generous offers of support for the people of Swaziland and the developing world.

Check out the blog page at our website http://www.possibledreamsinternational.org/, stay tuned as our whole team start blogging... I find it so exciting because each of them have such incredible stories to share with you... ;) You can also find badges for your website on our 'connect' page.

I wanted to talk to you today about social justice (is there anything else i talk about lol).

My sister showed me a couple of youtube videos this morning which moved me to tears.

They are from a social experiment called "What would you do?", which investigates bystander responses to obvious prejudice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3jZjm8xMwg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpLIg-kjmyY

What moved me so deeply were not so much the people who were indifferent, or even agreed with the perpetrator of prejudice in these videos. It was the ordinary people who stood up for the one was being mistreated. The ones who were stirred to act to defend the rights of their fellow human being in pain.

I began to think about the work we do with people in Africa. And it made me think of another little video... which i've shown here before from the documentary... the orphans of Nkandla...(a town a stones throw away from Swaziland)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ctFb1rNifk

I know many people who would watch a video like that, simply wring their hands in indifference. Saying "Its not my problem, Theres nothing I can do."

My friends Matt and Misty Lindsey talked eloquently about this issue on their blog... http://mmlindsey.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/everything-happens/

They describe an encounter with a well intentioned person who said that while they feel sorry for people in impoverished parts of the world, they do nothing because "thats their lot in life... And everything happens for a reason."

And yet what if the reason that extreme poverty exists at all is simply because the global community continues to refuse to stand up and say 'Enough!'.

What if as Matt and Misty suggest ” Everything does happen for a reason, and that reason is us."

I am filled with deep humility and joy as we stand at this new and exciting threshold. And it is with that same sense of humility that I invite you to join us. To become an ambassador of the possible, doing whatever it is you can do, to bring a ray of light to those in despair.

Every whisper of hope matters,

Together we will make a change,

My love to you,

Maithri

Possible Dreams International

2009-09-01T00:01:00.005+10:00

In 2005, somewhere in the green Lebombo mountains of Swaziland, I first met a group of individuals who have changed my life in ways past telling. While a sea of deep, visceral pain swelled around the hamlet of Siteki, we found in each other kindred spirits who believed that change was possible.

Swaziland is a country where 42% of the population are infected with HIV/AIDS. That’s almost one in two people. As I have written before on these pages, in Siteki there are more coffin salesmen than grocery stores; 75 % of people live on less than one dollar a day;
10% of the population are orphaned children; And there are well over 15,000 orphan led households.

Yet in the context of this despair, we discovered to our surprise that it is eminently possible to bring enduring hope, through the provision of food, water, clothing, education and housing. The things which most of us take for granted and name ‘the bare necessities’ of life.

For the people we served in Swaziland, these provisions were not seen as ‘necessities’ but luxuries. We were awed to see the power that these little gifts of hope had to change the trajectory of a persons life.

Since our first meeting in 2005 we have worked extensively as a team to find ways of addressing the urgent crises facing Subsaharan Africa.

And today, on this first day of September, I am humbled and delighted to announce the launch of our new non profit organisation.

Possible Dreams International, Inc aims to bring tangible hope into the lives of those afflicted by extreme poverty, HIV AIDS, malnutrition and endemic disease.

We hope to achieve this goal by:

- Raising Funds for and Assisting in the organisation of projects within communities, designed to empower and engage community members as they walk the road to self-sufficiency and freedom from preventable disease.

- Increasing awareness of issues facing the developing world such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, extreme poverty, malnutrition and endemic disease.

-Building bridges of understanding and compassion to overcome divisions of nationality, ethnicity, religion and social status.

What is more, we would like to invite all of you to become part of our dream for the world. To become an 'ambassador of the possible'. It does not require great wealth or special skills. It simply requires a willingness to allow the immediacy of human need to enter the bounds of your awareness. An ambassador for PDI might raise awareness, or funds, or simply spread the message of the urgent crises facing Subsaharan Africa to friends and family.

At our website http://www.possibledreamsinternational.org/ you can learn more about us, the work we’ve done, and ways in which you can help by becoming an ambassador of the possible.

We also have a blog at our website where 5 of the most incredible humanitarians I have ever known will share their stories of the gracious, beautiful people of Swaziland and the joys and sorrows which this work brings. In the spirit of community I hope you will engage with us by commenting on our new blog and via email. That you will always feel welcome to share your thoughts, ideas and feelings with us as we walk this broken road together.

You can also find us:

Here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Possible-Dreams-International/119742974805?ref=ts

And here http://twitter.com/pdiwecan

And here http://www.flickr.com/photos/possibledreamsinternational

There have been angels in my life.

They have never arrived with a clamour of wings or clothed in raiments of light, yet I have known them just the same.

They come to me in the lonely hours. In the time before the dawn. When my strength is at its ebb and I feel I can not go on.

Offering me wounded hands, imperfect words, unfinished love.

Yet somehow, what these human angels have offered has always been enough.

Always just what I needed in moments of despair. That stranger who says “How can I help you?” who reminds me that I am not alone.

I read somewhere that the word angel means ‘messenger.’

I know that we can be the messengers of love to the people of Swaziland and the developing world. What is more, I know without question, that these beautiful people are our angels. They teach us about the grace that walks on blistered feet. That the human heart is stronger and more resilient than we could ever imagine. They teach us that the most important prayer is thank you and that love is grander and deeper than even the bonds of hunger and disease.

We come here together, on the pulse of a new day. Wealthy and impoverished, black and white, accepted and marginalised. We who have been disillusioned time and again by the indifference of human beings to the suffering of our brothers and sisters in forgotten corners of this wounded world. … We come here together and start to build a bridge.

A bridge across whose mighty arms we might send a message to those who are struggling in the fray of life…

A message written in a simple tangible language of food, water, clothing, housing, education,…

A message which says clearly, gently, without fear or condescension….

“Its Possible.”

Love the world into change.

Maithri

Permission to Laugh

2009-08-25T16:14:00.006+10:00

Photo Credits

Dear Friends,

I'm back home!! Life has been moving so fast lately, I've not been a very good blogger and I apologise. ;) On September 1st, the first day of Spring, I'll announce on this blog the big news which I'm so desperate to share with you all....

I cant remember the last time I felt so alive, so juicy, so grateful.

Thank you for all your loving emails. This post is in response to all those who asked about my 'prescriptions for laughter'.... I couldnt do them in Swaziland y'all - i was writing from a vet clinic! seriously... ;)

But now that i'm well and truly home again, I searched the internet and found some hilarious stuff to share with you...

Now I was talking about African vets before... So here's the 'whose line' teams take on 'Tarzan'... Hilarious!!!!

I grew up on the TV show friends... My family were and still are to some extent friends addicts....I'm sure i've seen every episode a dozen times.... Here are some very funny (Rare) bloopers from the show...

And finally a dramatic look to end all dramatic looks... ;)

May winged joy surround you,

Maithri

I Still Believe

2009-08-24T08:45:00.006+10:00

My whole life, I have felt the pull of something bigger than myself.

Something wild and deep, just beneath my breath. Just beyond the places where the light does not fall.

A gravity. A magnetism.

A rainbow thread of love connecting me to a world of wounded beautiful human beings.

This morning as I wake, all I see are painted 'thank you's.
Adorning every unfinished surface of my life.

I believe in Love. I believe in Angels.

In spite of it all,

Because of it all...

Maithri.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX4Plx2pbU4

Medicine and the Music

2009-08-19T13:08:00.003+10:00

Could it be dear life,
That every song I’ve sung
In the echoing heart of the old cathedral
Or the solace of my bordered room

Every liliting phrase
gifted
to a painted dream of sea
Or a bubbling sink full of yesterdays dishes

Is here
Today?

There is rhubato love
Pouring in velvet shades of light
from a nurse
Tending the wounds
of a weary old man

Staccato pain,
That suddenly grips the face of the
young girl
waiting
in the corridors
for the answer
she fears

Crescendos of emotion

Glissandos of expectation

And outside the grey window
A butterfly dances her
Adagio with the
perfumed heart
Of a flower

The music
Is everywhere

Even here in
Our crisp, white
Hospital

Turning the lyric of ordinary days
Into
Rapturous
life

Flying while being Brown

2009-08-14T10:37:00.005+10:00

So while I'm not quite ready to reveal to the world the big news.... (I know some of you already know so Shhh!!!! ;) lol)... I HAVE been feeling the need to lighten the mood around these parts...

I was reading something at my friend Rose-Anne's place which really resonated with me http://currentsbetweenshores.blogspot.com/2009/08/kindness-of-strangers.html

And it reminded me of some similar amusing experiences I've had...

I remember it was around the time of September 11.... Actually, on second thought, it was no where near September 11... It was more like April 5th... 2005!!!.... I arrived in Sydney, Australia on a plane bound from Johannesburg...

I arrived in the baggage carousel and was stopped by a spectacled customs official... "Good afternoon sir, may I see your passport please" - I showed him my AUSTRALIAN passport...which he spent at least an hour browsing through...

Now let me digress here for a moment, and say my passport photo at the time wasnt the best... whose is really? None of us are models here am I right?... Well ok maybe you are... but thats beside the point...

"Where do you live Sir?"

Melbourne - I replied....

"Melbourne, Australia? "

"No, Melbourne, Switzerland." (Ok thats not what I said, but you get the picture...)

Do you have a job?

"Yes I do."

What is that job?

I'm a doctor...

A doctor of what?

"Meat."

OK again not what I said....

Whats the postal address of the place where you work?

"What????"

I can tell you the suburb...

"Only the suburb...

"Well I can tell you the street...."

"What about the post office box number?"

"You're joking right."

"I'm a customs official sir. I dont joke."

"Clearly." I nodded

After a similar barrage of questions which went on for at least 10 minutes... he left me alone...

I walked two steps towards the baggage carousel, when another suited up customs official approached me...

"Good Afternoon sir, Can I see your passport please...."

Sigh...

For the next half an hour I was interviewed by 6 different people....

Eventually I gave up and said to the one with asparagus stuck between his teeth...

" Look, Do i really look THAT scary????"

With a shrug of his shoulders he said four words which have stayed with/haunted me ever since.....

"Maybe its your jacket."

Watch this space!

2009-08-07T09:06:00.006+10:00

Hey there beautiful people,

I have some very exciting news!!!!... which i have to keep to myself for a while...(dont you hate people that say things like that.... "ive just heard the best secret... but i cant tell you" -- lol)... Anyway, its consuming most of my free time at the moment - and it has filled me with so much enthusiasm that I'm literally bursting at the seams to share it with all of you! Its as if my mind has caught fire and I cant put it out. ;)

Thank you all for your beautiful kindness to me and Kathleen on my last post.

You know guys, some of my closest friends and family who read this blog say to me "Maithri, I love your blog! Not so much for what you say... but for the incredible comments.... no offence bro!" (dont you hate it when people end a sentence in 'no offence' LOL!!! ;) )

But they're right you know ;) When I was in Swaziland your gentle words whispered to me every single day and helped me to recharge and become inspired over and over again.

I do receive a lot of mail each day and as hard as I try, its difficult to respond to each one individually.... Forgive me.

But please know that I hear you.

I feel you.

And my cup overflows with gratitude for the love that each one of you brings into my life.

I Wish you the world,

Always,

Maithri

You raise me up - A tribute

2009-08-01T07:24:00.006+10:00

Friends,

I've gotta be the luckiest man in the world. Because in my 29 years of living, I have known angels. Flesh and blood Angels whose hearts beat one more breath of love into the world with each passing moment.

The first time I met Kathleen Hartmann was on the musty wards of the Good Shepherd hospital about 5 years ago. I always say that in that brief moment, I knew without a doubt, that I was in the presence of a great and wonderful soul.

It was as if a certain rare and beautiful fragrance tiptoed into the room and settled around her.

In all my dealings with Kathleen since, I have found that first instinct to be one hundred percent accurate.

There are some people whose hearts are so wide, whose lives are so filled with humility, and grace that to begin to write about them is almost impossible. This is how I feel about Kathleen Hartmann.

I was blessed to be roommates with Kathleen for part of this year in our beloved Siteki. She had called me to come and help empower the home based care team in their difficult but crucial work of tending to the sickest and poorest within Swaziland. But as I went out each day with the team, It was I who found myself learning.

Kathleen is a master of compassion. A virtuoso of love.

Whether it be on a hospital ward or in the corner of a delapidated hut into which the light has never shone, that love is always, always apparent.

The video below is one which we took the night before Kathleen left for her home in New York this year.

Over the last ten or so years that Kathleen has been doing this work, there is a group of boys in the community that have become like her own children.

There is Spa (Spamandla) who dreams of becoming a doctor, Mtho (Mthobisi) who is a double orphan and has moved in with Spa because he was unable to study in his hut as he could no longer afford candles. There is Thando whose heart is so big and is our tour guide whereever we go. Melegelily who loves to eat! And then there is Tobs (Thobani).

Thobani is Kathleens soulmate and our beloved brother.

Thobani was born with spina bifida, his legs paralysed. At a young age he would walk on his hands through his mud hut, dragging his feet, which meant they would become chronically infected. Eventually both his legs were amputated.

His life has been so very difficult. There are trials and tribulations which he has faced which are deeper and broader than I can write about in this small space.

But through it all Thobani's heart has remained pure. His love for the world unadulterated, uncorrupted.

At every juncture of his difficult life, Kathleen Hartmann has been Thobani's angel.

Theirs is an uncommon love story which inspires all of us who have been blessed to know them both.

The night before she left, the boys came to me and said "Yo, Maithri - can you teach us a song that we can all sing for Kathleen."

"An English song?" I said - my eyes lighting up ;).

"Oh yes!" they replied in unison.

So for two hours we crammed into the back of my little hired volkswagen and learnt this song.

Roomie, I know you've been asking me to send this song to you, so here it is....

God bless you Kathleen,

We love you.

You are the change I want to see in this world,

Maithri.

Everything that is good and beautiful

2009-07-29T08:52:00.007+10:00

My friend and brother Ron Atchison is one of this worlds unsung heroes.

I found his website www.inspirationpeak.com many years ago when I first discovered this thing called the 'internet'. Since that time it has been for me and so many others a fountain of wisdom, truth and inspiration. In the last ten or so years inspiration peak has had over 5 million individual visitors and his newsletter reaches over 50 thousand subscribers every week.

Through the years I have been struck over and over again by Ron's deep humility, generosity and love for this wounded world.

Ron and I have had many discussions about the HIV pandemic and the emergent crises of extreme poverty, malnutrition and preventable disease facing the developing world.

His website even became a sponsor of the young heroes program and inspired many people to sponsor a AIDS orphan in Swaziland.

http://www.inspirationpeak.com/news/youngheroes.html

www.younheroes.org.sz

Before I returned to Swaziland this year, I asked Ron for his sponsor childs name so that I could see whether I could make contact with him while I was in Swaziland.

After months of searching the little communities around Siteki we found a little hut in Mahukhu where Zweli Madolo and his family of siblings lived.

Zweli is a quiet and well mannered teenager who loves playing soccer and dreams of one day becoming a soldier or policeman.

His parents both died several years ago from HIV and he and his beloved sister were taken in by their caring grandfather.

Zwelis family recieves money for schooling, food and clothing through Ron's young heroes sponsorship.

I talked to Zweli about why we had come and about Ron's commitment to him and his family.

For a moment he didnt understand what i was saying, but as I repeated the words, his face lit up and he said "Mister Ron!!" "Mister Ron!"

He ran inside his hut made of sticks and stones and brought out a envelope of documents. Inside, perfectly folded, were his birth certificate, his medical records... and a letter from 'Mister Ron'.

I felt all the hairs on my body stand on end as I read Ron's message to Zweli.

"Even though I am far away, you are in my thoughts and prayers. I wish you everything that is good and beautiful."

Sometimes people tell me that the little things we do, don't count. That they are lost to the winds, like little leaves in a storm.

With all my heart, I know they're wrong.

Its like my father has always said: "Humanity is a spiders web. Touch the web at any point and the whole web vibrates."

As I stood with Zweli in the ochre dust of Mahukhu, holding the letter of a friend whom I've never met, but has touched my life and the life of young Zweli Madolo in so many ways.

I could feel the web vibrating.

My love to you,

Maithri

What's in your shoe?

2009-07-27T11:00:00.005+10:00

Siteki at Sunset

Photo Credits - Rachel Drew 2009

Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.

~ Robert Service

The Immediacy of Human Need

2009-07-24T08:54:00.005+10:00

"Some pictures never leave your mind. They are the faces of the children. The ones we left behind." - Miss Saigon, Claude Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubil

Since I returned from my most recent period of work in Swaziland a couple of weeks ago, I have heard almost on a daily basis the words "It must be so hard leaving them."

I usually nod in quiet recognition and explain that it is hard but I stay in touch with many of my friends in Swaziland and will be back next year.

But there is something more which I wish they could understand.

It is not possible to leave.

Once you truly allow the immediacy of human need to enter the boundaries of your awareness. You are there. Connected. Entangled. Involved.

Always.

This may seem like a horrible thing. Akin to being haunted by ghosts.

I remember once speaking to a group of psychiatrists at a very fancy psychiatric clinic.

I showed them a video of two little children 5 and 10 surviving on their own in the town of Nkandla following the death of both their parents from AIDS. The interviewer asks "Do you miss your mum?" And the children start crying uncontrollably. The little boy sobbing into his older sisters dirty dress.

The question they asked me that day was "Maithri, how do you cope, having seen such sadness? How do you forget that kind of experience?" (It was a little more psychoanalyitical than that, but that was the jist lol

My answer was this - I cope by not forgetting. By remembering them, by honouring their lives, their pain, their struggles. I cope by allowing my comfortable life to be disturbed and allowing the reality of this world in.

There was a family of children I visited just a few days prior to leaving Swaziland with our team from the hospital.

There were nine kids. All under the age of 10. Their father had died early this year from HIV. And their mother had run away with another man. Leaving them alone to fend for themselves.

The police found these nine children and brought them to their grandmothers hut.

This grandmother was another of our patients. She had end stage airways disease and heart failure, rendering her almost completely immobile. The effort it took for her to stand would cause her to become critically short of breath. She spent all of her day sitting in a corner of her hut, waiting for the pain to end.

When we found these kids, they were naked, without food, playing with pieces of barbed wire in the mud outside their hut.

I wanted to take them with me. To put each one on my shoulders, put them in the car and bring them somewhere safe.

But there was just no time. We had to leave in two days.

So those children remain as they are. Alone. Unfed. Unloved.

It is easy to allow the enormity of the problems facing the developing world to immobilise us.

But we can not afford to do that.

Because while we swim in pools of woe, we forget that if there is any answer to their problems, then it is us. You and I.

When I stepped off the plane into my familiar Australia, I was reminded that we do in fact live in an abundant universe. There is so much here. Far more than we could ever need or use.

So how do we get a fraction of this abundance to where it is so desperately needed?

We need to build bridges. Bridges of awareness. Bridges of understanding. To remind ourselves each day that we are all here together. That on a round planet there's no choosing upsides.

So when I am told "It must be hard leaving them"

What i want to say is "I could never leave them. They are with me. As real and immediate as if they were across the street.

Wherever I am, whatever I do, their lives will be honoured within the context of my own. The work doesnt end when we leave Swaziland.

It begins.

My love to you,

Maithri

The Man who sings to the ocean

2009-07-23T08:21:00.005+10:00

Coffs Harbour

Australia

23/07/09

0500

Its funny how I always end up here....

At the waters edge.

No matter how scarred the road I've travelled,

how wounded,
how broken.

Look for me in the uncommon hours and you'll find me there,

at the warm mouth of an all forgiving ocean.

Singing my little songs

To the Awakening

world,

With Love,

Maithri

The Art of Love

2009-07-17T19:06:00.013+10:00

"Imagine all the people, sharing all the world" - John Lennon

One of the great blessings of my life has been the wonderful souls whom I have met through the medium of this little blog.

Tessa Edwards, http://aerialarmadillo.blogspot.com/, is a visionary artist, poet and humanitarian who lives in the

United Kingdom

.

She honours and loves diversity, and yet still sees the common threads which weave us together as one.

Tessa wrote to me one day asking how she could help the people of Swaziland. After some thought she generously decided to donate all the proceeds from her artwork for an entire year to our work in the little mountain country.

Part of the money which she has raised has gone to help bring clean water to the people of Mambane. But today I wanted to tell you about another very special project which Tessa has made possible.

As I have written on the pages many times, 10% of the population of Swaziland is comprised of orphaned children.

As there is only one orphanage in the entire country, most of these orphans remain in their homesteads. Many thousands of them live entirely on their own. The lucky ones have a Gogo (A grandmother) to look after them.

Let me tell you about two of them:

Gogo Alvinah is 73 years old. For the last 40 years she has been the janitor at the Good Shepherd hospital. She mops the floors, cleans the wards, changes the linen for those who are sick and dying. Alvinah is famous for her heart of compassion. She is often seen feeding patients who are too sick to feed themselves, and she always has a smile and a kind word for those she meets.

The work Alvinah does is hard and her days are long. She actually retired 10 years ago, but finding no way to support her family, she was forced to return to the job.

Alvinah had 11 children. Seven of them have died secondary to complications of HIV. Her most recent bereavement was just last month on the 8^th of June. She tells me that there is not a day that goes by where she does not dream of her children. Of the four remaining children, three live in

South Africa

, and one is mentally ill and still in her care.

Alvinah is currently looking after 12 of her grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.
She never sleeps. She wakes early every morning to cook for the children and prepare them for school (school fees are expensive in Swaziland). She then goes to work and returns in the evening to cook once more and tend to 14 sets of bruised knees and lonely hearts.

Gogo Ndzimandze is another amazing Gogo who lives in the community of Makhewu.

She is a woman of quiet strength and deep dignity, known in her community as one who does not complain. All of her 5 children have now died, the last one in late May.

Currently there are 16 lives in her care (14 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren).

They all sleep in the one urine soaked room. They eat one meal a day.

I asked Gogo once, “Are you still grieving for your children? Does the pain ever stop?”.

She turned away from me and wept quietly into her hands.

“It never stops.” She said “There are some days where I have considered taking a weevil tablet and ending it all. But then I remember that I am all that these children have.”

With the money raised from the selling of Tessas artwork, Gogo Alvinah and Gogo Ndzimandze will each receive 25kg of Mealie meal (out of which porridge is made - the staple diet for Swazis) - and 60 eggs each month for the next 12 months.

To us it may not sound like much, but for these families it means everything.

The following videos give you a glimpse of what happened on the day we told Gogo Alvinah and Gogo Ndzimandze about Tessa’s gift to them. Gogo Alvinah was full of words, whilst Gogo Ndzimandze as my friend Matron Zwane put it "kept it all quietly in her heart" .(The final video is a montage of photo and videos)

People sometimes tell me that Swaziland is a lost cause. That the country is imploding, haemorrhaging life as HIV runs rampant. They tell me that there is nothing we can do to ameliorate the suffering of these people.

But its on that last point, that we very much disagree.

We live in an abundant universe. There is more than enough for everyone on this earth to live a full and happy life. What we need to do, is simply to learn how to share what we have.

Not out of pity or condescension, but out of love.

To me, this is the great art of living.

Love the world into change,

Maithri

ADDIT:

Friends, I'm leaving in the early hours of tommorrow for some interstate work. I will be away for the next month. Depending on my internet access there, I may or may not be able to post.

For those of you curious about the progress of the Swaziland appeal, to date readers of the soaring impulse from all over the world have donated over six thousand Australian dollars for the Waterpoint project at Mambane. A borehole has been drilled, a water pump and ten thousand litre water tank purchased. We are well on our way to seeing clean water delivered to three thousand people in the area. I will post further about the exciting progress of this project upon my return.

Salani Kahle, (Be Well)

Maithri