This video, courtesy of CBS Sunday Morning, makes me want to jump on a plane and become one of the 57,000 visitors to Bhutan each year. The hiking, the spirituality, the warmth of the people, are just some of the things that people enjoy in Bhutan.
That said, the most intriguing aspect of Bhutan is that they measure progress by gross national happiness. According to The Borgen Project, this index is comprised of nine variables:
1. Psychological well-being
2. Health
3. Education
4. Use of time
5. Cultural diversity and resilience
6. Good governance
7. Community vitality
8. Ecological diversity and resilience
9. Living standards
Perhaps more countries should consider measuring happiness as the ultimate aim of our lives...
As I was conducting research for this post, I wanted to write about something other than blood diamonds which I mistakenly believed came from Benin. Upon further research I discovered that blood diamonds were sourced from African nations that underwent civil wars during the 20th and 21st century, namely Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (thank you, Wikipedia). I likely misattributed blood diamonds to Benin because the actor who played the lead role in Blood Diamonds, Djimon Honsou, hailed from the country.
Djimon Honsou also starred in a film about voodoo in Benin. Again, I made the mistake of thinking that voodoo originated in Haiti. Previously, I had little concept for what voodoo was, other than a cartoonish concept that witches cast spells on people they didn't like by sticking needles into their effigies. In reality and for the most part, people in Benin practice voodoo to communicate with good spirits who can provide them with healing. This five-minute video from National Geographic features the journey of a man whose young daughter was called by the spirits to become a medium.
For a more in-depth (and graphic) introduction to voodoo, click here to watch the story of a man who wanted to learn more about voodoo, so he became an apprentice. This 25-minute film is graphic and I had to avert my eyes on a few occasions, but it is worth watching for the deeper insight into the voodoo rituals in which believers practice.
The last vacation my husband and I took before the pandemic was to Belize. It was more of a "rest and relaxation" than adventure trip, so we stayed at a resort and read a lot of books.
If we ever make it to that part of the world again, I would like to explore the Great Blue Hole, a massive sinkhole made famous by ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau who declared it to be one of the five best scuba diving sites in the world.
This sinkhole is 175 meters deep and serves as a record of eons of history. Once you get beyond 100 meters, you no longer encounter sea life. But you do encounter submerged caves (that were once above ground) and stalactites.
You can explore the Great Blue Hole by diving -- but you can also take a helicopter tour and witness it from the sky.
I am a chocolate addict. I do not believe I have ever encountered chocolate that I did not appreciate -- even varieties on the cheaper end. That said, I always knew that Belgian chocolate was special -- but did not know why. Check out this three-minute to discover their magic ingredient.
Attending a ballet performance can transport you to a world of fantasy. Think The Nutcracker. Think Swan Lake. Think The Little Prince.
While the stage is where the audience gets transported, backstage is where the dancers and set gets transformed. In this five minute video, you can accompany travel vlogger Eileen Aldis backstage at the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of Minsk where all the magic happens, where costumes come alive, sets become real, and dancers metamorphose into characters from the famous stories of our childhood.
In addition to being the venue for some magnificent storytelling, the Bolshoi Ballet of Minsk is the stuff of legends. It survived World War II, even though it was hit by a undetonated bomb. The theatre is covered with gold inlay and if you look close, you can spy the telltale Soviet sickle and hammer. The statues adorning the top of the building look as though they have been there for generations -- but they are actually a relatively new addition.
This video will have you wanting to hustle back to the ballet.
This weekend, I visited my family in Connecticut after not seeing them since the pandemic started. The weather was absolutely beautiful as I watched my nephew in a ruby match, my niece in a softball game, and reconnected with Long Island Sound -- where I first fell in love with the water.
This video runs less than three minutes and gives a great snapshot of what makes my hometown so special -- the water, the history, the New England charm (and yes, Maine friends, the lobster roll WAS invented here).
I relished my first in-person trip in 16 months -- but am now relegated to the sofa after a jam packed weekend.
P.S. The best part of the trip was catching up with my parents -- I just wish this article came out one week earlier, as it offers some great tips for catching up with parents post-pandemic.
Half circles litter the sky. They are tethered to people on the water tethered to their surfboards. Would you try this on the windiest island in the Caribbean? Could you keep in check your sense of feeling out of control as you feel the exhilaration pulsating in your heart and on your skin in the form of slapping wind and water?
This is meditation time, time to be one with the wind, the water, and in the moment. There is no thinking about the emails that are piling up in your inbox. Just as the half circles are tethered to people tethered to their surfboards, kitesurfing tethers participants to the present moment. The slapping wind and water will bring you back to it if you try to run back to the past or forward to the future.
If you can't kitesurf now, enjoy this four-minute video that serves as a Barbadian meditation. Watch the half circles litter the sky. Let your ears take in the calypso. You can almost feel the wind and the water.
