More love in Malaysia

Top of the morning to youses!
Lot's of interesting, inspiring, disturbing, anxious, and fun things have been happening to me since I last wrote. My couchsurfer in Kuala Lumpur told me I had to leave with short notice. Hotels are expensive. What to do? I looked around the neighborhood the night before I had to leave. No hotel but I met a guy that invited me to his really cheap restaurant. "Meet me here tomorrow" he said. I thought well okej. I met him there with all my stuff. Now homeless. I start to draw. Kids come and are watching, laughing but too shy to start drawing themselves with my encouragement. I think, " What am I doing, I should be looking for a place to stay". A few hours go by. Okej time to go. A man just sits down to some 2:00 lunch. "You want some food?" he asks me with a big smile. "No I'm full thanks" I reply. "Where are you staying?" he asks. I shrug my shoulders almost enthusiastically "I don't know". "You stay at my house" he says with another big smile. Bang, I thought. There it is. That's what I was waiting for. You might think it a bit crazy or risky to accept from a complete stranger. It felt right to me.
Turns out he's got eight beautiful kids and a beautiful wife. Some of the kids are around my age and the youngest is around eight? We had sooooo much fun. We laughed a lot, danced, played music, watch a lot of tv and video games, ate a lot of food. They fed me all the time. They were so generous. They gave me a ring, shirts, some traditional malay clothing, a scarf. And so much fun. I drew them a picture of their family. They really liked it and we laughed a lot with it.
I stayed at their place for almost a week and they were sad to have me go. I wasn't sad to go. I really enjoyed my time and I would have liked to have stayed longer but I couldn't be sad to go. I was so happy, so grateful to have met them and had the time I did share with them. I couldn't be sad.
I also met so many people in the subways and had really nice conversations. I met a man in a mosque. The same mosque that helped bring me to The Great CAT Man. I think this mosque is a special, holy, place for me. I felt drawn to the mosque again where I met Ahmed and I had a lot of talks about Islam there with him. He was also really generous to; offering me lungis, a tuke, lunch, new sandals (though I didn't accept them), a stick tooth brush, more food.
The day I left KL (kuala Lumpur) I got confused on the metro on my way to pick up my chinese visa. Went to the "wrong" stop which meant that I had to go to the mosque again. The mosque is right beside one of the metro stops. I thought okej. Guess I'm meant to see Ahmed one more time. And he is there. "Hej Ahmed. I don't have much time is there anything you want to say to me?". Ahmed didn't get that I had to go, I just arrived. He talked with some other guys and didn't give me much attention for some moments. "Ahmed, I've got to go. Any last words?". Still busy with other people. "Okej I"m going Ahmed" as I reach for his had. He says, " Next time you're in Malaysia you better come here". " I don't plan to ever come back to Malaysia" I say. He says " I think you'll be back in Malaysia again". Bang! There it is. Why I was drawn back to him. Will I really be back in Malaysia again? I really felt it from him. But I want to be a local organic farmer in central BC. How am I going to go back to Malaysia? Then I thought. I'll just let life carry me where I need to go, and I smiled.
Another day I felt drawn to another Mosque. Very beautiful one. Met some Bangladeshi men that invited me to an opening store party. Through talking with them I learned that they (muslims) and Jewish people, I don't know about other religions, believe that Jesus a.k.a Isa will come back. I look like Jesus some say. I find it fun to think maybe I'm the Messiah, but also think this is my ego trying to make me identify with something other than my "self" and consider myself something so great and better than others, which I'm not. No being is better than another on the "self" or "soul" level says Eckhart Tolle and that feels right to me.
I asked Ahmed about this second coming. I thought Mohammed was the final word of Allah for the muslim people. He said it's true and the Messiah will have only one eye and that they will arrise in Syria.
After Ahmed told me I'll return to Malaysia I hopped on the metro and saw a young man. I really wanted to talk to him. I didn't know why. Turns out he was from Syria. Spooky. Lovely. Meant to be?
My KL Malaysian family drove me to the bus station and waited with me before the bus came and fed me one last time. Oh I love those people! I arrived late to Batu Pahat and met my cser.
She was a lot younger than I thought and didn't even have two kids! I was her first couch surfer.
She took me to meet her friends, we went to a small fishing village and hung out on a dock that I was drawn too, that was so calm, and that felt like the end of the world. I got feeling anxious on the dock, the deep calmness had subsided, but I tried to calm myself. An English man, though he had lived in Singapore for some 40 years, came up the dock. He had been in this little fishing village for almost a year. He knew so much about this dock, the amnimals around including the legal and illegal fishermen and cargo boats men. He was a plethora of information and I had a lot of fun listening to his stories. He didn't seem ready to hear what I had to tell him. He seemed a bit hard, pessimistic. He was hit by a motor bike and was resentful. He could still walk but "It's not the same! I can't dance anymore." I feel I was meant to meet him. I hope he considers my advice on letting that resentment go. Focusing on what he has.
We watched the sun set. It was amazing.
My couchsurfing host was great. So accomodating, funny, and has some exciting travel plans for the future. But what I cheerished most about her was that she listened to me. I asked her repeatedly that if she was bored with my stories and my annecdotes and quotes from "The Power of Now" that she must tell me. It won't hurt my feelings. Well it might but I can deal with that. I don't want her to feel she is being lectured. She listened. She told me she liked my stories and that made me feel so happy. I really felt like she WAS enjoying them and I was so happy to tell them. And I really felt like I was able to explain the ideas of "The Power of Now" in a clear way to her. I've felt unable to explain these things to so many people for so long which is frusturating because I strongly suspect it is the Truth. She gave me the space to explain. Many people don't and I suspect it will be no different when I return home. So I'm trying to practise shuting up more often. But it's hard because I suspect I know what is going on. Why people are having problems or that what they are doing/saying is only feeding their ego. But maybe I suspect falsly and people won't listen unless they are ready.
I don't want to repeat my over proactive environmental activism past and scare everyone away from listening to me because they think I ONLY care about the Environment/Power of Now. I care about you, I love you , we are One.
Also interesting (in my subjective opinion), many times I would start a story with my cs host which would make me think of another connection or insight brand new to me. I was learning from my babbling mouth too! That made me really happy. I'm so grateful.
Thank you.
Now I'm in another big city Johor Bahru or JB with a lovely family. I've started to practise a day of silence once a week. A day to be calm and focusing inwards. Either Sunday, the day of rest for Christians, Monday for Mahatma Gandhi whom is the person that inspired me to do this and he practised it every Monday, or tuesday for Morrie from Tuesdays with Morrie. I've made it so I have a choice so that if Monday is a travel day or the first day I meet someone I can change it to either Sunday or Tuesday.
Following Mahatma Gandhi I start 8pm the night before until 8pm that night. Today is my silent day with my cs family; the dynamics are interesting and fun.
Yup that's about a little part of what's been happening in my life. I hope it was interesting.
But it is what it is.
Hope you are at peace with this moment. If not feel the emotions in you. Take a deep breath or to and know that those feelings are okej. They are not you. (everybody,"shut up kelly!" Kelly "D'oh")
Presence,
Kelly