Swadi-ka! (Hello!)

I think some of you are wondering what I’m doing here in Thailand. You’ve been saying to yourself, “Why is she still out there? I thought she’d be home by now, it’s been 18 months for goodness sake! Why hasn’t she come back to the U.S. yet?” Well, ok, it’s likely only my close friends and family are wondering this, but that’s the majority of my readers, so I thought I’d fill you in on the game plan* since I haven’t talked to you in a while. I think I’ve mentioned bits and pieces of the plan occasionally in previous posts, but it’s more comprehensive and cohesive now.

When I left the states, I had two main goals in traveling. 1) To work through all the crusty layers of emotional turmoil that had been building up, and 2) To find some sort of new purpose for myself; some direction for work in a creative field.

I had no idea how to accomplish either of these tasks when I left the U.S. but I was confident that all would be revealed to me in the proper order and time. And it has.

I’ve made my way through the emotional layers; you guys have read about all that. Vipassana silent retreats, soul searching, philosophizing, reading and picking away at negative emotions to determine the root cause. I haven’t been on a resort vacation out here people, I’ve been working! Coming to Thailand though was about shifting gears into Phase II, the creative path. Things are moving along nicely, and I have a clear direction forward (whew!), but of course it’s taking time to get it all in motion.

Here’s what I’m working on:

The Critical Path Book – Telling all the stories from my travels (some you know, so many you don’t 🙂 ). This will also include things I’ve learned along the way to help bring happiness to my life. With outrageous numbers of people suffering from depression, anxiety, anger, ______, the drug industry booming with happy pills and people seeing therapists in record numbers, it’s clear to me there are things we could be doing differently in our day to day lives to achieve greater happiness. I’ve found happiness in so many unexpected ways; I want to share that with everyone.

Then, of course you know about the bags. You’re probably thinking I’ve made them up, I’ve been talking about them for so long, but I’m almost ready to make them available for you. That involves setting up a website, getting pictures of the bags, figuring out payments, shipping etc. I will have the site up and ready for you no later than November 1st.

On top of the bags, I’m beginning to make contacts with other special needs people/groups here in Thailand so I can offer more products on my site. Ideally I will work with 6 or 8 different groups and sell various products so we can all collectively help those less fortunate and have some cool stuff from around the world. Yaayyyy!!! Some will be products I’m directly involved in designing, some will not. I’m also looking for products from groups within the U.S. if you know any.

Oh, and I’ve decided to stay with the name Crazy Mungo for my company name. This was the original label name when I started making the bags in Tanzania and ‘conscious creations’ my second idea isn’t really working out for various reasons.

Finally, I was inspired recently to write another book (much smaller than the other one) about women accepting their bodies and making the commitment to appreciate the differences in other women instead of comparing themselves. This came from my own personal experience of, well honestly, self-hatred and what I would consider body dysmorphia. I finally decided one day recently I was done disliking my physical body; it was time to tackle this issue once and for all! And I did! I’ll tell you how in the book I’m calling, As You Are, which will be released, by November 15th (hopefully).

I realize this is a very common issue with women around the world, but especially in the U.S. and if I can help just one other woman love herself with this book, then it will be worth the effort and delay to the bigger book.

So these are the projects I’m working on. I feel it’s important to remain in the away-from-home ‘travel mode’ frame of mind to write the books and I know if I come home before completing them it will affect my writing. These are the projects I’m passionate about, and they are my way forward on the path of creativity. I can’t wait to share them with you.

I hope you’ll all understand why I’m still out here and support me knowing I’m doing things that are good for me and that I’m passionate about.  I’ll plan a trip back home to the states when the big book is done. I do miss everyone and think of you all often. You’re all still with me even though I’m far away. And hey, with the magic of technology we can skype, (thank goodness it’s not 1985) so if you miss me, let’s skype!

P.S. Siggy is coming to see me in early December and Mom is coming over for Christmas 🙂

Lots of love to all my favorite peeps!

*All plans subject to change without notice or prior warning. Author reserves the right to modify, update, change completely, scratch and start over, nullify or follow through with said plan at her discretion. LOL