This is the view from the rooftop of Tharlam Guest House - the place I call "Home" here in Kathmandu.

When I look at the prayer flags dancing on the frozen, winter wind, robed monks fingering strands of beads as they hurry their circles around the stupa as the sun sets on Kathmandu Valley...
I wonder at the possibility that this could be the same Earth!  My visual reality rocked to its core; my heart and spirit search for what is constant.  Sunset becomes more profound.  Birds and their seasonal avian quests, the cold wind cutting through my inadequate layers, eyes that smile through skin color, trees blooming in response to the sun, thunder, rain, puddles, smoke and the warmth of a welcome January sun, the freedom that a national holiday brings, a hot drink in chilled hands.  Universal, deep, constant meaning.

We really are all in this together!

As I pack and race the internet curfew...I am excited to get out of the city for a few days and live in a village.  I am up for the adventure and have only a vague idea of what I am in for!  I will be on a long bus ride before sunrise heading along the Trisuli and Kali Gandakhi Rivers on the way to Pokhara.

The village I will be in for the week is a "Vulture Restaurant," set up to safely feed, restore and rehabilitate the dwindling South Asian vulture population. Over 90% of the vulture population in Nepal, India & Pakistan has been exterminated by the veterinary use of Diclofenac (an anti-inflammatory drug) in cattle....    Much more later when I return to electricity and web access!  

http://save-vultures.org/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis
http://www.birdlife.org/action/science/species/asia_vulture_crisis/diclofenac.html

Does this bird look familiar?