Cleopatra Day

I am always at a loss about how much gratitude I am reminded of in respect to this journey to China.  I, we as americans have so much and need to stay in a space of gratitude and appreciation for it all.  Yesterday I went into the city of Zhong Zhou for a day "on the town".  The city is very developed with a lot of buildings, lights and people all busy with their lives.  We went with Kim who is the Director of the World Academy for the Future of Women.  She is from the USA and has been at the university since August of this year.  She first needed to stop at the Metro which would be the equivalent of our Costco.  Then off to lunch at a wonderful restaurant that had sensational food some of which I had no idea of what I was eating.  The funniest part of the day was going to the bathroom and making it all work in a squatting position.  I hope I won't offend anyone reading this for I all took it in with humor and the joy of this international experience.

After bending down my glasses fell on to the floor (that was not exactly the most sanitary) and I just let out a howl of laughter at the whole picture.  So I got my glasses cleaned off and went on with my day but I felt that it was important to SHARE!!!!! After that we were off to the spa for a massage that was two hours in length. All three of us shared the same room so there were other women to again SHARE this experience.  First they give you some silk pajamas so that they don't directly touch your skin except for your feet and head.  After the back and neck, we were invited off the table to put our feet in hot water that looked like it had some herbs in the tub.  Our feet and legs were washed and soaked and back to the table for the front part of our body.  First, they took a sink out from under the table and we had our hair shampooed and our heads massaged.

While that was going on our feet were being massaged with oil and I was in heaven.....I felt like Cleopatra and called the day a total "Cleopatra Day".  I got up from the table feeling like I had an out-of-body experience.  Today, Sunday, is time for laundry and a planning and review day for the week to come.  My lecture this week will be on human sexuality and I need to make some revisions on my format based on observations and feed-back I am getting from the girls.  This morning I had one of the girls visit me because of concerns she was having about information she had gotten from her doctor she visited in her village.  She was scared and worried that as a result of the findings that she would never be able to have children.  I don't think from what she told me that this is the case and I tried to frame what had happened in a more positive light.  We spent almost two hours with each other also talking about her parents expectations, having a boyfriend, pressure at school and what it meant in her society to be a "strong women".  I encouraged her to stay in her heartspace and remember how powerful our thoughts are in creating our reality.  I certainly was in my heartspace as I listened and shared the difficulties of being a woman in the world of today.