An extraordinary year to say the least.

Feb 1, I became an octogenarian !! Just celebrated quietly with my family. Win asked me if I wanted to have a gathering I thought of previous birthdays I celebrated with my students. After 22 yrs having founded the Center, and organising so many festivals and events with STW community I felt I owe it to my family to be just with them. My family had sacrificed a whole lot when I started the Center. I could only pay partial attention to them. I felt I just wanted to celebrate with them. I had no plans. But Win took me to a local tea shop in Sebastopol. We talked for about four hours ! A time to reminiscent, a time to pick up threads where we left off. We were both at peace and we just talked and talked. It was most precious time to spend with my first born who is actually very busy with her two little boys. Shannon my Son-in-Law took care of the boys to let mother and daughter spend time together. That evening Shannon and the boys joined us at the Center for a simple dinner. Their present for me was a caricature of the two boys Khine and Zeya! It was a lovely family day !!

Then the Pandemic started in China. I had started to follow the news about Wuhan in China where it first began. I anticipated it will become a pandemic seeing that the virus was from animals . Humans have no immunity for such invaders. True to form pandemic ensued so since March I have been stay home all the time. I venture out only for visits to my osteopath and chiropractor to treat my spine and posterior pelvic joints.

I had a lot of time on my hands so began to write on daily life practice in Burmese and English on Facebook where I was able to reconnect with doctors my ex contemporaries. Then tried making videos with iPhone as Susan my secretary is quite good in taping my sessions.

I also began to teach 2 small zoom classes on DLMP daily life mindfulness practice with hands-on training. It was very enjoyable and became high lights of my stay-at-home time. It was great to interact with them on Zoom. I experimented with sandwiching parts of Abhidhamma after each mindfulness in daily life course with the objective to help to understand the Mindfulness practice against the background of Abhidhamma teachings. I was very happy to find my students highly appreciated it.

Shwedagon Pagoda building project at the Center had taken off very well but had to be stalled due to the pandemic. We are planning to restart again soon. Please check the website www.americanshwedagon.com

The top structures were made in Burma with guided stainless steel in 5 sections and will be air freighted very soon. I was instructed to complete the Pagoda by mid Jan by myGuru. The pagodas built in our lineage are like building vortices with extraordinary healing energy. Once they are crowned the astral energy will be broadcasted all over US and the world over.

With this I would like to conclude the letter with best wishes to everyone for Happy Holidays!!

With Metta

Dr Thynn Thynn