New Adventure Begins

Sitting with the roar of jet engines echoing in my ears, I had plenty of time to reflect on the possible folly upon which I was embarking.  After reconnecting with my love, Lucky, after about six years of separation, I decided to pack up and move to Sri Lanka. One has to follow the heart, I believe, but my nerves were screaming: Are you nuts?  What have you done? 

I have had a fortunate life, especially since I discovered by vocation: teaching. With wonderful teaching experiences, at home and abroad, and great students and colleagues,  I have been able to travel some, write some, and make some good friends. As I faced moving to another country, I wondered if my luck would hold, or if I would be in for a disaster. Leaving had its pains: my mom is 86, so this goodbye could be the last, my sister was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and faces a long, hard road, and, sadly, bringing my little dog Polly proved impossible. 

On my many trips to Sri Lanka in the 2010s, I saw many European visitors with dogs. Little did I know how challenging and expensive it had become to bring a pet into the country. To make a long story short, it would cost five to ten thousand dollars to bring her in – and she would be in cargo. It broke my heart to have to rehouse her. I found her a lovely couple near Jacksonville, Florida and she seems to be settling in well.

 Fourteen hours into a seventeen hour flight, with a stiff neck, masked face and sore bum, I face my adventure with excitement and anxiety. I have been very anxious about my transit through Singapore. Originally, I was to have Polly with me; however, I am convinced I did the best and right thing by rehousing her because the journey would have been awful for her.  

The journey was not without its challenges. The check in clerk and I had a go around in Orlando. I was convinced I got 2 free bags on an international flight, but he insisted I was wrong.  Rather than spend another two hundred dollars, I abandoned my golf bag with the bamboo shelves I planned to bring along. I arrived at my gate in San Francisco to be told I could not go to Singapore because my departing flight was not on Singapore Airlines.  United made good and got me on a Singapore Airline flight.  I stressed out about transiting through Singapore because the information was confusing. Some information indicated that I would have to go through immigration and pay $125 for a Covid PCR test. Other info indicated that passengers with vaccination records and a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before departure waited in the transit area for their connecting flight.  

Unable to decide which was correct, I did not schedule a PCR test and pay ahead as recommended.  I was greeted at the gate by a young woman with a sign bearing my name; she directed me to a transfer desk where I received my new ticket for Singapore Airlines. They handled the luggage transfer. No PCR test. No electronic health card. Just a long wait.  I splurged on a transit lounge and for $50, I got a quiet place to sit for 5 hours, a meal and a shower. 

My transit through immigration at the airport in Sri Lanka was smooth. The process had changed a bit since my last visit, with only one stop. I grabbed my bags and eagerly went to the busy pick up area to meet Lucky. We connected, loaded up and zipped off to the hotel. I was pretty tired, but not that tired . . . Six years is a long time!

Bagua & My Space

Wealth and Prosperity	Fame and Reputation	Love and Relationships
Family	Health and Well-being	Creativity and Children
Knowledge and Wisdom	Career	Helpful People and Travel

 

The bagua is an ancient Chinese symbol system used in feng shui to mark energy areas of your living space.  Most often the bagua is six sided but since I live in a mobile home, I elongated mine to suit the shape of my mobile home.  I have two doors but I use the one off the carport the most, so this bagua is oriented with the career area on the door side.

 

My mobile home is 60 feet long by about 10 feet wide, so my bagua is not exactly to scale. Below is a floor plan with the bagua overlay.  As you can see my main door opens into the “Helpful People/Travel Section” where my washer, dryer and hot water heater are located.  It is considered good fengshui to have appliances in an area because they generate energy; however, my concern is that my travel money is being spent on high electricity bills.

The back bedroom which is a work in progress and, to be honest, a dumping area for all sorts of left over things is my “Love and Relationship” and Creativity” sections.  My Relationships are a mess, no doubt there, and my creativity involves many started projects metaphorically represented by the piles of junk and half finished projects n the room.  Not to mention that the toilet is in the creativity area as well. I have started painting the room this week but will need to do some more work there.

To the left when I enter is a long hallway that flows into the living area. It is narrow and was pretty dark.  I have painted it a nice aqua color and added mirrors and artwork to add light and slow down the energy so that my second career, a writer, has a chance. Sandwiched between the bathroom and the living room is my bedroom in the health and reputation sections.  I painted my bedroom the same color as the hallway — an aqua/ sea glass color.  Even the ceiling.  It is a haven, a cocoon for rest where I only sleep. I have anxiety issues and they mainly center around my idea of myself in relation to my work, so I needed to calm down the reputation and health areas with a nice soothing color!  Works so far!

Beyond the bedroom at the end hallway is the living room and then the kitchen. The living room straddles six areas of influence with the majority of the space in the “Career,” “Health,” and “Reputation” areas.  The color scheme I chose — because I love the beachy feel not because it matches some schools of feng shui — is a warm brown with sea glass on the wall in career section.  My sofa is whit and I have some flower patterned chairs.  I have a woven grass carpet on the floor in the living room and running down the hall.  Two windows in the living room face each other and I have light fabric drapes in white covering them. The living room and kitchen table are where I spend most of my waking time and I love the space because it is light and soothing at I display my favorite trinkets here.

The kitchen is at the east end of the mobile home and has a floor to ceiling window which allows morning sun to stream in.  I sit here every morning and soak up the light and write. I have plants in the living room and kitchen; they love the sun too. The kitchen encompasses three areas: “Knowledge,” “Family,” and “Wealth and Prosperity.”  The kitchen is a bit of a work in progress because I need upper cabinets and new appliances.  I cleaned the existing stove and fridge but really, really am looking forward to new, very clean ones.

My second door is on the south facing wall at the place where the living room and kitchen meet.  I use that door about half of the time to keep the energy balanced.  If I flip the bagua around and orient it so that this door is the front door, my kitchen would be in the “Relationships,” “Creativity,” and Helpful People/Travel.”  I have been writing every day, so my creativity is fired up!  See why I want to keep things balanced?

Heliotropism – turning toward the sun – is on my mind this chilly but sunny Florida morning.  The temperature went below freezing last night and I fired up the space heaters when I got up.  It wasn’t until the sun broke the horizon and lit my eastwardly oriented windows that I began to feel warm.  I pulled back the drapes and the sunlight cascaded onto the kitchen floor.  The dogs ran out to take up their sunny spot where they could also keep an eye on the waking and walking neighbors – human and dog. I was jealous until I discovered a sunny spot on the sofa and joined Chica there.

 

I have discovered that I need a lot of bright and direct sunlight in the morning.  Perhaps I have a touch of SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder.  I need bright light in which to work.  My daily writing routine begins in a pool of strong morning light, and, like a lizard, I follow the sun around the house soaking up the light.  While I am no longer a fan of sunbathing for a tan, I do love the light. I am even thinking about having the decorative awnings on my mobile home removed so I can get more light.  The price is more heat in August and September when this area of Florida is its hottest, but I can live with that.

 

Like my dogs and my plants, I have finally realized that I need the sun to be happy.  This is also good feng shui because light is energizing and having a home that is energized and makes you happy is the best of all feng shui.  My plants are happy and growing very well.  I bought both a dwarf banana tree and a fig tree when I moved in in July and they have tripled in size.  I have some goldfish plants and Arabica coffee plants that are glistening with heath and twenty or so succulents soaking up the sunshine with me.  All of this growth and sunlight pours in my creativity area on the bagua. Doesn’t get any better on a chilly January morning in sunny Florida.

A Little Fixing Up

Okay, so I am no Joann Gaines but believe me, a little bit of demo and replacing can go a long way in making a place feel cleaner and better.  My 1970s mobile home was obviously owned by someone addicted to fried food; the evidence was all over the house in the form of a coat of sticky grime.  Behind the stove, the entire wall was an eighth of an inch thick in crud.  Oh happy time cleaning that up.  I took down all of the lights and was actually able to save the kitchen ceiling fan with some elbow grease and four new lamp shades. The appliances while old and dirty work, so they got a good scrub down as well.  My cousin Lisa came over and helped with some of the scrubbing.

The cabinets were hopeless though.  They were old 1970’s plywood and the bottoms had rotted out from water damage — and, in Florida, we have multitudes of bugs that like to move in with humans, so I had my cousin and repairman Troy take them out.

The biggest difference was the flooring.  Troy took out the stinky carpet and let the place air out. Then he repaired places that needed leveling and laid down some laminate flooring in a light oak.  I was back in Mexico finishing up the school year when all of this took place.  When I came home in April, I had a nice clean slate.

One of the principles of feng shui is cleanliness.  It makes sense, right?  Get rid of the old and stinky carpet and with it the old dirt and energy of previous occupants.  The mobile home also had an ancient heating and air conditioning system with vents in the floor.  I asked Troy to seal up all of those vent holes.  This also make sense for the feng shui of the house because I would have been circulating old and probably very dirty air in my home unless I paid to have all of the ducts cleaned and/or replaced — not to mention the big, ancient unit outside. Instead, I cleaned the in-the-wall units and proceeded to think about paint.   I am off to Lowes to buy the best paint in the world: Behr.

 

Mobile Home Rehab — The Purchase

Greetings,

I recently moved to Inverness, Florida after teaching abroad for several years.  My mom, who is over 80, recently moved here, so I decided to leave teaching at international schools to be closer to her as she grows older.  When I was visiting in December 2017, I found a 1973 mobile home for sale in a park with reasonable lot rent.

I went for a look.  I like the layout with the kitchen in the front near the road facing east and the bedrooms in the rear facing a small field.  The place was totally empty but was really, really filthy with carpets that reeked of dog urine.  Ick.  But . . . the price was right and it felt right, so I bought the place for $7,000.

 

I brought Troy, my second cousin and handyman, with me and he said the place was solid and that much of the under-flooring had been replaced and the roof looked good.  Since my budget was limited, I decided to get rid of the stinky carper, of course, and have Troy install laminate flooring.

Feng shui?

Waterlogue Image

What is feng shui?  Feng shui, pronounced “fung shway,” is a way of harmonizing our personal energy with the natural energy of our homes. The practice goes back thousands of years to ancient China and has roots in our primal hunter-gather and cave dwelling existence. For example, in feng shui the entrance into the home is very important as the symbolic mouth of the home where energy enters.  When we were cave dwellers, the entrance to our cave home was a place to protect from potential predators, bad weather, and other dangers. Caves opening to the bitter winds of the north were less desirable than caves with opening to more temperate southern or western exposure. The warriors and strongest of men would be charged with watching the cave entrance as the clan slept, keeping the occupants safe.  Thus, today a seat facing a door or a room entrance has become a seat of power where a seat with one’s back to a door leaves us feeling                                                                     uncomfortable.

The words feng shui literally mean “wind water:” two very important elements to consider when selecting a living space thousands of years ago. Eventually, the instincts that helped us survive as cave dwellers were applied to living in towns, villages and cites. From cave to skyscraper, the basics are the same – we need to protect the inhabitants of the home from harm and harsh conditions and provide a safe, clean and harmonious home.

Over time many different schools of feng shui have developed including Black Hat School, Form School, Compass School.  I have found through my reading over the years that many feng shui practices are based on literal interpretations of rituals rather than metaphorical.  I believe it is possible to generate clean positive energy without hanging bamboo flutes, placing mirrors in strange places, worrying about where your toilet is located and decorating around three-legged toad statues.

A space that has “good” feng shui feels inviting, relaxing, fresh and soothing because energy is circulating freely, all elements are balanced, and the energy is pure.  This is achieved by filling your home with fresh air, plants, light, objects you love and creating a sense of security.

 

Believing in the Invisible

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”    Hamlet I.5

I believe the world is a vast web of energy; after all, the world is made up of atoms and subatomic particles which are bound by energy. My ideas about energy come from a wide range of readings over the years including the works of Deepak Chopra and Carolyn Myss as well as the ancient Indian vedas and the Tao te Ching. I believe in acupuncture and ley lines and all sorts of ideas about sacred landscape, so it seems only natural that I would gravitate toward the ideas in feng shui.  Also, as a literature teacher for 20 plus years, I am fluent in metaphors and symbolism which helps me “read” what I see.

The name for energy in feng shui is Qi, pronounced “chee”.  It is also referred to as ki, ch’i Chi literally means vital energy or life force; it is the energy that binds the universe. Prana is the Hindu concept of ch’i.  Energy pervades the universe, flowing in, around and through our bodies, the landscape and our homes.

Volumes have been written about the nature and function of ch’i with its current ideology emerging after Confucius.   It is generally accepted that ch’i is made up of dual energies: the expansive, clear, fluid and light, or yang energy, and the contractive, dark, stagnant and heavy, or yin energy. The image of the energies of yin and yang in motion below is associated with many of the arts that involve ch’i such as acupuncture, feng shui, Qigong, martial arts such as Aikido, Kendo, and T’ai Chi Ch’uan.

Humans are sensitive to the energies swirling around us in various degrees.  Whether or not we believe in ch’i, it exists and it affects us.  Feng shui helps us harmonize the ch’i surrounding us and interacting with our personal energy so that we can have safe and harmonious living and work spaces.

Resources:

 

Carolyn Myss is a healer who reads energy.  She has written several best-selling books and offers seminars based on her insights.  www.carolynmyss.com

 

Deepak Chopra is an endocrinologist and ayurvedic practioner who connects quantum theory to ancient the vedic texts of Hinduism.  www.deepakchopra.com