Reunited

Together again with Karma and family. (Kathmandu, Nepal)

Tashi Delek!

I hope everyone is having a beautiful adventure filled summer! :)

Speaking of adventure, I recently re-read a quote from Chogyam Trungpa:

“When we are constantly recreating our basic patterns of behaviour and thought, we never have to leap into fresh air or onto fresh ground.”

It had me thinking about how easy it is to get pulled into the same patterns of thinking and doing - and hence how important it is we spend time with people with vastly different world views from ours.

The last 12 months have been incredibly nourishing, not only in adventure, but also in seeing Karma, Pemba, and Junu continue to thrive. Last month Chantal and I visited Karma in Kathmandu (we hadn’t seen each other in nearly 3 years, and hadn’t seen her family in close to 5!). While we’ve shared many FaceTime calls and texts, it was beautiful to share space with each other again, and meals… and heart to heart hugs. It also felt like a bit of a closing of a chapter, as we’d been there for Karma’s first day of school at SMD those many years ago, and now together to celebrate her graduation from high school! In celebration, we took Karma and her class to the rock climbing gym (Karma led the charge and was first up the wall :) ).

Another celebration was Junu’s graduation from Trent University! She finished with flying colours, with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (and with Honours to boot!). Following her graduation Junu returned to the west coast, to pursue her career in the medical sector (which has been her dream since we met 8 yrs ago).

And finally little Pemba. Nearly a year ago Pemba approached Chantal and me about coming back to Canada. She’d attended Junu’s grade 12 graduation ceremony at one of the top Canadian schools, while studying in Canada. The school had struck a chord in her, and it “felt right to her” to come back. Pemba took it upon herself to fill out the school’s application forms and answer all the questions, after which she was interviewed over Zoom. I was thoroughly taken by the depth of her answers, comments, and questions. One of my favourite questions she asked the admissions director during the interview: “You may know at SMD we focus a lot on preserving our Tibetan culture. What do you do at your school to preserve your culture?”

Pemba was welcomed with open arms, and made it back to Canada last sept. Over the past 10 months, Pemba crushed grade 9 - not only academically, but also embracing all the opportunities opening to her as a result. She participated in the school’s musical production of The Adams Family, thrived at athletics (she made the basketball team, and also won the Captain’s Award in field hockey), and completed the “Beyond the Gates” school trip, which consisted of 5 days of kayaking the Broken Island Group, and hiking half of the West Coast Trail. In addition, Pemba chose to create a music video for her end of year school project, which she sang, professionally recorded, and edited herself! You can view her final production here.

…feeling so blessed to be able to continue to learn and share life’s journey with these precious ones.

May we never forget to leap into fresh air or on to fresh ground!

Celebrating Karma’s high school graduation at the Kathmandu Climbing Center. (Kathmandu, Nepal)

Junu Standing tall having graduated with her Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours) from Trent University (ON, Canada)

Pemba soaking up the West Coast Trail as part of her end of year school trip. (BC, Canada)