Happy Thanksgiving!

You are preparing cranberry sauce, and I am -- no joke -- eating a "Holiday Sandwich" from Starbucks (where I never go in the States, btw) on the 26th (yes) Floor of the Kerry Center in Beijing, where you can barely see the next building for the smog. I thought I was getting sick in Shanghai until I realized it was the pollution clogging my sinuses. Reiki has been amazing while here. Walking around big cities in China is almost like continuously smoking a cigarette all day long. I don't want to even imagine what the lung cancer stats are here, but maybe they're not accurate since there really is no pollution here, or swine flu, either :-). Actually the stats may not be accurate simply because there has been so much development in the last 5 years, even, that the pollution has gotten more out of control. I mean, I wish I could show you what I am seeing. I have pictures, and they look like I used too much flash. Well, imagine Pittsburgh again in the 60s, I s'pose, or a very foggy San Francisco day (except in SF the fog is white, not hazy pink/orange). I haven't seen the sun in a long time, although I know it is there.

 

Okay. Enough on that. I'm really writing to tell you all how very thankful I am to have you in my life. Sitting in a conference room at Qualcomm is far from sad or lonely (so don't think that; I will be digging up some expats later) -- it gives me the space in between meetings and coachings to finally sit down and breathe, now that the most hectic part of my work trip has begun. I think it was only hectic in my *mind, and now that I have two coaching sessions down, and two workshops (after today I'll have done 3 of the 11), that notion has disappeared. I am really enjoying connecting with people and even giving them one tiny bit of advice on their pronunciation or communication skills. What it all comes down to is confidence. They do not, and most do not, tell themselves how GOOD they are in English. It's only criticism and "I could be better" or "I don't understand that guy." Sitting one--on-one with these brilliant Chinese engineers is enough to create a bit more peace in the world. They are helping me understand their culture, and how I can teach them better, while at the same time I am helping them navigate in their English-speaking world with just a bit more skill. And if even a millimeter more of their chest is puffed out, and their smile is a bit bigger, and they tell me "I learned at least one thing," I have done my job.

 

I am honored to be here, and thankful that I have the family and friends I do, my health, my zest for travel, a heart bursting.

*Our minds are so amazing, crazy-making, fun-having, judgment-making, entertainment-seeking little beasts and beauties, aren't they? I find myself really doing a lot of work with judgment. Value judgments. Behavioral assessments. Re-framing everything a different way is the best experiment I can imagine doing. I say experiment because it really is practice, not toward a theory necessarily, but toward a way of being, a way of thinking, a way of holding oneself in the world, with love and the ability to see every single other human being as just exactly the same as we are, despite the (these are the silly goose little things I was working on):

 

-loogey-hawking (gross to hear during breakfast? Maybe...but that person really needed to get it out).

-people pushing and going as fast as possible (if I lived in a city of 25 million, I would try my best to fill any free space, too, and amazing how rarely people bump into each other)

-ignoring my request for a taxi (Was that true? I asked myself after 10 minutes and two questions at 7 this morning. My answer? Nope. I had not made my request clear, and he thought I was waiting for a ride.)

 

My point? All of this doesn't exist for just us, little Trumans, and nobody is right, or better...it's all just different, and just as interesting and comfortable. And what a great laboratory in the great world of practicing acceptance. It's fun to write and say the word "loogey" again, anyhow.