IN 10 minutes, as I begin this article, we are due to land in Bangkok's Don Mueang airport, having left Bali's Ngurah Rai airport some three hours ago.
We leave Bali feeling homesick for this beautiful and peaceful place, wishing we could stay longer. The meditation retreat we conducted for 3 days in Ubud for 23 of our Lightcatchers family is over, and it is time to go on the 5th leg of this trip.
We left Manila last week, heading first for Kuala Lumpur, then Bali, then Lombok for a short break, back to Bali, today to Bangkok.
Tomorrow we leave for Chiang Mai, a very special place for us. This is where our spiritual journey started, and life began to take a more meaningful, more connected slant.
I distinctly remember a strange dream I had when we were in the planning stages for our first trip to Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Divya was a few months old, Byren was about 4 years. I still held the Booksale Franchise for Baguio then.
In my dream, I was looking up a long flight of stairs, tall trees on each side. I was sitting cross legged on the ground, Divya on my lap. I had on a long navy blue shapeless dress, a gray shawl over my shoulders.
Across the road from me were rows of stalls selling an assortment of bells, statues and other metal ornaments.
I stood up when I saw people going down the stairs. I started ringing the bells I held to get their attention, and with Divya on my hip, offered one to a woman coming down.
When I woke up from this vivid dream, I took it to mean that I should buy bells from Thailand.
I kind of forgot about this until we got to this sacred temple in Chiang Mai. I wasn't sure why I found this one compelling when we were planning our itinerary. The dream came back while I was there, and I just had to buy a bell.
Our tour guide showed us where to go, and when I saw those long stairs, the tall trees, the rows of stalls, my eyes widened with amazement and recognition. My heart was in my throat as I descended.
Nearing the bottom, I saw her, the woman who was me in my dream. She had on the exact long navy blue shapeless dress, the gray shawl and the baby on her lap.
She was ringing the bells before I reached her, and she stood up when I approached. We stood, face to face. I looked intently into her eyes, trying to see if she would recognize me too. But her baby started to cry, and our connection was lost.
I look forward to being in this temple with the bells again, to connect to the place where it all began, our search for a deeper meaning to life and existence.
Long before I learned of Stephen Hawking's theory about alternate realities, I experienced one of mine. Over the years, there have been other mystic experiences, many, many realizations.
I have had other prophetic dreams as well: sometimes of outcomes if I make a certain choice, sometimes warnings about situations and conversations and sometimes dreams of foreign places I've never seen before, but recognize when we get there. I have come to accept them as signposts from my inner being.