Namaste, In 2008 I visited Vietnam with my artist friend Caroline http://www..carolineorner.com and we were interviewed by Tracey Teo a freelance travel writer. The article was later published and I want to share it with you. Tracey is currently working on a documentary about the Smoky Mountains in the US. You can follow Tracey on Twitter. Asian cruise lets foodies learn to cook Vietnamese cuisine By Tracey Teo  Special to the Herald-LeaderTracey Teo The Vietnam Cookery Center in Ho Chi Minh City HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam – Susan Stockton Koss and ­Caroline Orner are on a gastronomic odyssey, eating their way through Vietnam as the cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas sails down the country’s coastline. But Ho Chi Minh City is what the friends have their hearts and palates set on. Orner lives in Hagerstown, Md., which has no ­Vietnamese restaurants, so to satisfy her craving for those sweet, salty and sour flavors unique to Vietnamese food, she wants to learn to cook it herself. That’s why she’s at the Vietnam Cookery Center. For her, this is the highlight of a new Asian itinerary offered by Royal Caribbean’s during a 12-day cruise that originates in Hong Kong, includes stops in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, and ends in Singapore. Vietnamese is my favorite Asian food, Orner says. If you don’t live in a big city like New York, it’s hard to find. After today, I’ll be able to make Vietnamese food by myself and won’t have to search for it. Stockton Koss lives in Phoenix, where Vietnamese food is more readily available, but she also is determined to master the culinary arts of Vietnam. About 20 other passengers of various nationalities have chosen this shore excursion from the numerous Ho Chi Minh City tours offered. The students are seated in pairs at small bamboo tables, each with a miniature gas stove. Orner and Stockton Koss are trying to identify ingredients inside the delicate blue and white bowls. After their “field trip to the market this morning, they think they should know what’s what, but after some discussion, they can’t agree. During the visit to Ben Thanh Market, the group was introduced to foods common to Vietnamese cuisine. Vegetables like elephant ear and morning glory the vegetable, not the flower are as ordinary to a Vietnamese cooks as iceberg lettuce and spinach to an American homemaker, but quite extraordinary to most Westerners. The market has many varieties of fresh fish, sometimes really fresh: alive and swimming in the tank. If you want fish in Vietnam, simply look for the conical hats. Under those hats are fishmongers, sitting on stools so low they appear to be squatting on the ground. Point to the fish...

  In Memory of my Beloved brother Robb who died November 3, 2009.  CROSSING THE BAR   Sunset and Evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea.   But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, From that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.   Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark;   For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place, flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.   -Alfred Lord...

Namaste, I returned last week from a trip to Egypt, Turkey and the Greek Isles. It did not occur to me until I was flying home that I indeed had experienced a “Kairos” event, preceded by a Kairos moment when on a whim I asked my son, Barry, what in the world he wanted to see in this lifetime and if he could go anywhere where would it be? He immediately answered, “The Pyramids.” The fact that he is single once more and I could take the time off from my practice was nothing short of a miracle. Also, our ability to pull the money together for an extraordinary trip was in itself miraculous. We did not book until quite late with only a few cabins left on the ship as my son‘s passport had been stolen and we could not book until his new one arrived. But alas, it came and we obtained a choice cabin with a wonderful view from our large window looking out to the sea. We had not taken a trip together since he was a teenager but somehow all the stars aligned to create a vacation together as mother and son. We flew to Istanbul staying a few days in town seeing the sites, the Blue Mosque, Sophia Hagia, the Grand Bazaar and recuperating from jet lag in our luxurious hotel, before boarding the Norwegian Jade for a 12 day cruise. The Biblical words, fullness of time,” came to mind as interpreted by the noted Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich who described Kairos time as “the fullness of time,” or “moments in which conditions are ripe for events to transcend in linear time and take on greater, even eternal, significance.” My son had not been to this part of the world and I had been to all but lovely Mykonos which we both truly loved. Santorini, Mykonos and Napflion on the mainland of Greece were our favorites as was Istanbul and of course Cairo with its mystical Pyramids. We left the ship in Alexandria and traveled to Cairo, staying at the Mena House close to the Giza Plateau where we could almost touch the stone. The experience was fantastic and we were blessed with a wonderful guide for our tour of Egypt. He was associated with the North Africa Tour Company and was without a doubt the best informed, charming guide I have ever had anywhere in the world. I salute you Hamy! I learned more from him in a few days than my entire previous tour of Egypt some years ago. It was indeed an “opportune” time. The trip itself was true Kairos. The Sphinx at Giza Plateau “The two meanings of the...

Namaste, Amid all the frustration I learned painfully that I needed to let go and flow with the river rather than swim upstream. We all know what it feels like to move effortlessly forward without obstacles, it is like floating with the current of a river, or riding a wave in the ocean. This begins to happen as we release our inner resistance based on fear and become in sync with the energy flow of the Universe around us. It is as Eckhart Tolle describes in his book, “The Power of Now.” Resistance breeds new difficulties at every turn; in my earlier years it became a game of my strength and endurance as I kept pushing against, rather than with the energy flow. Old patterns within us and outside influences of the environment (i.e., no time, no money no partner, no access, no education) reflect like a mirror upon us guaranteeing more resistance leaving us with fearful negative feelings and an overall lack of trust in ourselves and the Universe. Trust is a difficult issue for many of us. We have been disappointed so many times in life, we find it hard to trust our partners, our lovers, and our boss, let alone the Universe. “Letting go” means moving with the energy flow, flowing with the river and not emotionally investing in the outcome of a desired effect. That is a difficult thing to do as the “Course of Miracles” teaches us we are paralyzed by fear rather than love. The irony of life is that when we “let go” of a person, a desire, a place or or a job and pay attention to our selves, everyone around us responds in a different manner and things fall into place. To quote my dear friend Caroline,” if it is not “easy peasy” let it go! The hardest thing about the wonderful things you hear in a “reading” are the wanting of them in the “now”. However, in a quote attributed to the writings of King Solomon; “to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:) (King James version) Divine timing or the right time divinely inspired, or what the ancient Greeks called Kairos, meaning the right or opportune moment in time is a concept we have all experienced. It is a moment when time stands still whether we are quiet in illness or active in the physical. It is the moment in love when we forget about time as we embrace our beloved; it flows when we are in a creative endeavor, painting, or writing, playing a musical instrument or conquering an intellectual challenge, mathematical or scientific, or simply running or swimming. In Greek mythology Kairos was the youngest child of the God Zeus. The original allegoric statue sculpted by Lysippos of Kairosis beautiful, and we know that beauty is...

Namaste, So, you had a reading and you didn’t know if you actually understood it. Yes, a relationship is coming, but when? My job is changing, but how? More money in my life, Where is it? To understand the world from which the psychic pulls information off the universal timeline, you must first understand that it is you that has control over your life. You can manifest the possibilities now or in the near future, or you can hold the future in abeyance by never clearly defining your intent. Or by not clearing out the old negative relationships, jobs, and patterns that keep us stuck. There are no but’s to getting what you want. I want a relationship, but . . . I want a new job, but . . . . Sometimes we cannot declare the parameters of the things we so desperately want in precise detail. Focus on what you really desire. I want to share a few thoughts with you as you walk your spiritual path. A “reading” is a glimpse of what your life can be and how you can attain not only the worldly illusions of success so powerful in our culture but achieve the serenity of letting go of worldly wants. These concepts need not be mutually exclusive. Why are we not always told the outcome of our most pressing issues? The answer is simple. You can go to a plethora of “readers” and they can all see the same thing in front of you but free will plays a part in the outcome and karma, that of our own, and of the others involved in our desire. In the end the answer is for you to decide as that is the journey that carries us towards enlightment. Your spiritual guides will not reveal to you an answer that will interfere with or is part of your lesson to be fulfilled. It is always interesting for me to see what a client is told and what is not told. Some clients are so in tune with their lessons that within a six or eight week period all that has been foretold will transpire. Others will pine for their “soulmate: who has not arrived in their bed, or for the job that seems elusive or the move that is on hold. When this happens it is time to re-examine the Laws of the Universe and our intent. We have the ability through our thoughts to manifest what we want. If one is on a spiritual path living in an Ashram but has moved to the Ashram so as not to pay delinquent taxes, and/or unpaid consumer debt then how does the person confront his or her truth and progress his soul? To quickly...