Rhododendrons fulling their calling in Nepal.
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Once again, I am deeply grateful to those of you who have offered financial gifts. Your generosity will make the ninth year of this work possible beginning on Inauguration Day 2025.

Again, following the request for your financial gift, is another new story I’ve written about my time solo trekking in Nepal.
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A Request

Everyone has his [sic] own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.
~ Viktor E. Frankl

Dear Friends

I decided to begin this email project the night Trump was first elected. I imagined it would last four years at the most. Now we’re nearing the completion of eight years into this commitment to counterbalance the dark energy, influence, and power that has surfaced and grown in the world. As always, to me that means quality over quantity and light in the darkness. 

Our Impact

With each Wednesday email I send a blessing and an expression of gratitude to each of you. At this time, we may underestimate the subtle power of such a community as ours. Yet every week we connect our conscious vibrations when I write and you read. It truly matters.

My Need

At this stage of my life, I can no longer afford to offer this work on my own. Surprisingly, it costs about $3000 a year to maintain the tools needed to offer this gift to the world. This project is important to me. It brings meaning to my life. I am humbled at needing to ask for your financial support. But that’s what’s so today. If everyone who opens these emails contributed the cost of a Starbuck’s coffee or a bottle of wine or dinner out, the costs would be covered for the next year.

How You Can Help

Payment for the first tools that need to be renewed comes up on December 11. If you feel called to support this project, please consider making a contribution as soon as possible and for sure, by the end of this year. Kaleidoscope Lenses is not a registered non-profit. However, if you send money as a gift, you do not need to pay taxes on that one-time annual contribution. It is a very good way to invest in our evolution. Please send your gift to my paypal account: https://paypal.me/barbarajoshipka

Also, if you have suggestions, requests, or questions, please let me know. I welcome your thoughts.

With love and gratitude,
Barbara

A Story
.The Sherpa guide, two cook boys and a yak.
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Catching My Breath

After a rest in Namché Bazaar, we headed out again and would be going in a different direction. But first we climbed the same way we had before until we reached a plain high above Namché. We stopped to visit with a Tibetan vendor for the third time and would see him a fourth time on our way back down.

I felt renewed by our walk through the rhododendron forest. We continued to climb in elevation. Sometime the next day I began to feel lightheaded at times and extremely fatigued. I told the sherpa that I just didn’t think I could go any further. When we set up camp for the night, I immediately went into the tent to rest. The cook boys worked on our dinner. The sherpa guide called me to come out and eat. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. First, I had no appetite for the trekking daily fare. Secondly, I didn’t have the energy to get up anyway. I just wanted to sleep. The sherpa guide called to me again. Then he came to the tent to have a look. I told him I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t want to get up. He tried cajoling me by saying, “You’re fine! You need food.” I just laid there. I felt despondent. Just let me sleep. If I died it would be okay. Finally, thank goodness, I fell asleep. 

I was awakened in the middle of the night but couldn’t get up. The guide and one of the cook boys came into my tent. Together they carried a very large oxygen tank which they set up and then hooked me up to it. I breathed in the oxygen. I was amazed. Within minutes I felt ever so much better. It seems they had deduced that I might have altitude sickness. The two cook boys had walked over a mountain to the Kunde Hillary Hospital where they got the heavy canister of oxygen. Then they walked back over the mountain to bring it to me. Such kindness! I wore the tank for some time. Then I was breathing well on my own. Now I really slept.

The next morning we began our descent. Back across the flat meadow above Namché Bazaar where, for the fourth time, I visited the blanket of the Tibetan vendor and his wares. Then to Namché Bazaar where we spent the night. Then the next day we descended the 2000 feet from Namché Bazaar as we headed back to Lukla. I felt great and I thoroughly enjoyed this portion of the trek. The snow covered mountains gleamed all around us, there were no scary drops next to the path, we encountered interesting people, and there was almost no drop or rise in elevation. Close to heaven.

When we reached Lukla, it seemed like a metropolis compared to where we’d been. I decided I’d had enough of tents for a while so I checked into a sherpa hostel. It was very basic but luxurious at the same time: running water for toilets and a shower; an actual bed!

The sherpa and cook boys set up their camp nearby in case I needed or wanted anything from them. I had just spent ten days without any substantive connection to others. I longed to be able to speak English with someone who was culturally and linguistically similar to me. The sherpa spoke and understood only a small amount of basic English and the cook boys didn’t understand any English at all. And, of course, sadly, I did not speak any Nepali.

Thus begins next week’s story.

A Tibetan vendor on the plain above Namché Bazaar.

Photos by Barbara
Trekking in Nepal
Scans of 35mm slides