NOV 27, 18 .. MY LIFE’S LIKE THE .. FIELD OF DREAMS

As I begin here, it is – 7° F in Irkutsk, Russian Siberia. It is very late on Tuesday the 27th of November, it is very early in the morning on Wednesday the 28th of November 2018.

HAPPINESS IS : 

A constantly changing phenomenon.

A state-of-mind.

A decision we can make.

Abraham Lincoln Quote : “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Happiness this instant is a silly thing :

HAPPINESS IS : The fact that the English name of Иркуск (the Russian city that I am currently sitting in) is Irkutsk, and it has two English vowels (The I and the u) in its name. I guess this is because Иркуск also has two Russian vowels  (The И and the у). These silly facts enable me to pronounce the name accurately, both in English and in Russian.

Friday I am flying to Kyzyl in the Tuva Republic. I’ve been told by Mike (my translator) that I am not able to properly pronounce the name Kyzyl because our English alphabet of 26 letters can not accomplish what the Russian cyrillic alphabet of 33 letters can accomplish sound-wise. For now (and maybe forever more) the best I am going to be able to do with Kyzyl is to call it Ka Zill.

When living in West Germany (1974-1978) I had /and I still have issues with the German alphabet’s three special letters, the diacritic letters ä, ö and ü used to indicate the presence of umlauts.

Where was I going before I got off-the-rails above?

Got it ..

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Right now my life resembles the 1989 movie, ‘Field of Dreams’.

There is one famous line in ‘Field of Dreams’ .. “If you build it, they will come.”

My adaption of this line is : “If you go there, amazing doors may open up for you.”

In the movie, Ray Kinsella was an Iowa farmer who was ‘driven’ by some unknown force to plow the corn in his corn field under and to then build his baseball Field of Dreams in his former cornfield.

Like Ray Kinsella who became obsessed with building his Field of Dreams, beginning in late 2015, over the next several years, I too became increasingly obsessed with just getting here to Irkutsk.

On October the 29th my obsession became reality.  Ray Kinsella built his Field of Dreams and I got to Irkutsk.

As happened to Ray Kinsella in the movie Field of Dreams, amazing doors are opening for me just because I came here.

Back in late 1992, I learned from one of Mother Teresa’s priests in Calcutta, himself a Jesuit, that in the Roman Catholic faith, the Jesuit order of priests has a term they are fond of using : Discernment.

Discernment is a certain powerful and objective manner of looking at a situation analytically and impartially to attempt to evaluate what you are experiencing or observing.

Google / Wikipedia say : Discernment is the ability to obtain sharp perceptions or to judge well. In the case of judgment, discernment can be psychological or moral in nature. Within judgment, discernment involves going past the mere perception of something and making nuanced judgments about its properties or qualities.

Here is where I am going :

If in your own life you are feeling an unusually strong / powerful ‘calling’ to do something, with discernment, evaluate the ‘calling’. If you feel it is valid, follow your heart and pursue it.

For reasons that I will never fully understand, I have personally been blessed with (for lack of a better way to put it) the God-given ability to recognize and the courage to then ‘follow these powerful callings’ that have been set before me.

In the spiritual world, if one of us can achieve spiritual callings, we all can achieve them.

As I like to say : IF YOU HAVE THE HEALTH AND IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY .. PLEASE FIND WITHIN YOURSELF THE COURAGE TO ACCOMPLISH YOUR OWN SPIRITUAL CALLINGS.

Sitting here writing this Post, is a ‘calling’ that I have chosen to follow. Maybe, in some small way, my efforts here since August of 2011, when Andrej and I began babakaps.net, have helped someone to get through a day. Or given someone an insight that has helped them. I hope that this is the case.

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Today it was back to Tele2 my cell phone #2 service provider.

One, and only one person here in Irkutsk, could accomplish what needed to be accomplished : To reinstate me as the legal owner of my cell phone.

I had loaned my cell phone #2 to a friend who then formally registered it (my cell phone) in their own name as the legal owner (of my cell phone). To accomplish that, my friend had to have a Russian resident sign-on-the-dotted-line that she (the Russian resident) would be fully responsible for the cell phone.

So, thanks to Mike, we tracked down Olga. Olga then had to take time from work, meet us, and then to go with us to Tele2 and formally, signing-on-the-legal-dotted-line attest to the fact that she, Olga, the person who took responsibility for my friend, was now going to be responsible for me and my actions and that I was who I said I was with passport and visa procedures in hand.

Thanks to ‘911’, and all that has come after it, we now live in a time when governments (ours included ) want to know, with no nonsense, who is doing what with a cell phone.

This took some time to accomplish. Patti spoke to Olga on the phone during the process. Neither could understand the other but both laughed and giggled and conveyed to the other it was fun to be chatting. To fully understand this you have to have had some international experience along these lines.

And?

Just because I was walking, walking and walking some more today, I discovered that little Ol’ Irktusk has a real, live, performing circus arena.

WOW ! Just look at the above two photos, a crystal clear, bright, sparkling crispy day here in Russian Siberia.

HAPPINESS IS :  Just To Be Here .. To Be Doing What I Am Doing.

HAPPINESS IS : Having Patti along with me, proof-reading and cleaning up my writings.

Cap

• ← NOV 26, 18 .. AND .. WE’RE OFF AND RUNNING .. ON THE ROAD AGAIN
• NOV 28, 18 .. THE END OF MY FIRST MONTH HERE IN IRKUTSK →