Francesco Garripoli’s Blog: Aloha! Whether I’m at my homebase retreat on the island of Kaua’i, Hawaii or on the road, Blog-i-poli will be my junction point for sharing info on the various projects I’m involved in for health, wellness, youth, families, music… and my esoteric bantering on living a life of empowerment as a “waking dreamer”… Thanks for joining the journey… Peace…

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Not nearly as royal as the purple Jacarandas in full bloom and on guard around the majestic Punakha Dzong, the tree outside my window has its own grace and job to do. Swaying in the gentle wind, this cross between a weeping willow, a tree fern, and bamboo provides shade for the hundred or so vendors beneath her branches. Everything and every action seems purposeful in a place where wealthy countries consider poor. The 4^th King of Bhutan H.M. Jigme Singye Wangchuck promotes a concept of Gross National Happiness, working to put cultural pride and satisfaction above financially-oriented gross national product, the barometer for most countries to judge their success. For a country that is supposed to be so impoverished, Bhutan appears to me to be one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Every meal I have is a feast (especially if you like chili peppers), water flows abundantly in every corner, people smile wherever I go and I’ve never seen anyone begging on the streets. The Dzongs , 17^th Century fortress-monasteries, are as magnificent and well preserved as any structure I’ve encountered anywhere in the world and they are all in full use, bee hives of activity. The villagers who live in proximity of any Dzong mirror their vibrancy and glow with a sense of place. (more…)

…the only thing that even suggested that I was in Bhutan was the bank of windows that had that tell tale woodwork design one sees on every farm house and hotel throughout this amazing country. My room is a stark yellow plaster cube, but comfortingly quiet, with none of the barking dogs of Thimphu that kept me up in the fast-growing capital. No, here in Punakha I am back in the rural peace I so love. Replete with bells and drums, Buddhist chanting starts the daily process of giving thanks for another beautiful day. The innocent laughter of school children fills the crisp, clean air. I’ve never encountered more innocence and beauty than in the young students of this kingdom, mirroring the overall charm of a country that has only had television for the past 6 or 7 years. (more…)

* Personal Message from Francesco
* Qigong Study Trip to China in September – Magical Sichuan…
* Qigong For Women (and Men) – Daisy’s Radiant Lotus April, May & June workshops in Kaua’i, Metro D.C., Honolulu, San Diego, Boulder, Palo Alto & East Bay
* Qigong Workshop with Francesco & Daisy in Michigan and Maryland (NQA)
* Francesco’s Qigong Classes in New Jersey and NYC
* Qigong Classes at Kahuna Valley
* Francesco’s Bhutan Trip
* Study/Healing Trip to India – sold out
* New Qigong DVD packaging
* Mentor Ohana – Mentor program management software
* Kahuna Valley Retreat on Kaua’i – Watsu, energy healing, massage… (more…)

Greetings from Dharamsala, India!

It�s 10 pm at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, a majestic snow capped peak of the Dola Dar range looms over this still warm valley teeming with evening life� several families and laughing friends enjoying alfresco dinner in the open-air restaurant, shops lit by single fluorescent bulbs still attracting customers like moths to a flame. A horseman guides his beast of burden laden with supplies up the steep, broken concrete roadway to waiting families in the upper valley. The ubiquitous dog barking punctuates the night, adding to the concert of failing mufflers on the three-wheeled tuk-tuk cabs and screeches of evening birds. In the distance an Indian tabla player drums his ecstasy, the Hindu puja prayers resonate beyond, and somewhere else, Tibetan monks finish their evening chants. Dharamsala is anything but quiet� (more…)

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A lot of people ask me about my songwriting… and that’s always been a private part of my life… Songs are like coded personal journals; they reveal the depths of our soul, with the details sometimes shrouded in metaphor and diversion… I’ve been writing songs for 35 years and they’ve always been a place of comfort for me. Is it like that with your creative process? Whether it’s a song or a painting, when we are out of our “left brain” and into our creative “right brain”, we access our magic… It’s not about being “great” at performing or being a renaissance artist… it’s really about how free you can be, how you can just let go into that presence of being without self judgment or fear… So in that spirit, I share some of my intimate expressions, here in song… I hope that the music can inspire you to share and trust that maybe now is the time for you to find your muse and let your creativity fly… Enjoy…

One Hour TV Documentary for Television

Ten years ago when I had the idea to create a professional, journalistic television documentary on the subject of Qigong (pronounced “chee gong”) it was just another crazy idea – underfunded and from my heart. After a couple of years of living in China and studying with Masters of this ancient healthcare modality, I realized that it was something that really needed to be done in a fair and objective way – and with the quality that the subject deserved – after all, it was the healing practice that I adopted for my own personal health preservation. Here’s the opening clip from the one hour program… then scroll down for more on the history of this project. PBS TV told me that their viewers really weren’t interested in subjects such as this, but after much loving persistence, they said that they’d give it a shot and allow affiliate stations to air it. We mounted a grassroots campaign to let PBS stations around the country know that the program was available and that there was a willing audience interested in viewing it. Needless to say, our efforts worked and after less than one year, over 88 million viewers got to see “Qigong – Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century” on PBS TV. I went on many stations and was interviewed, brought Qigong Masters on like Master Duan, and helped with fundraising campaigns. At Detroit Public Television we raised over $350,000 for the station through the airing of this little documentary. People around the country showed that they wanted programming like this and were willing to make substantial donations to their local stations to have their voice heard. I donated the documentary to the stations – making it available to them for no cost. We had no corporate underwriters and didn’t get a penny from PBS… but we received the awesome satisfaction of knowing that if you follow your heart, anything is possible. All these years later people are still using this documentary to introduce Qigong in their workshops, at hospitals, doctor’s offices, schools, senior centers, and the like. Click here if you’d like to learn more or support our Kahuna Valley non-profit organization and purchase one of these DVDs.

Greetings! …and welcome to my first blog post here at Blog-i-poli! I’m so grateful to my friend and tech wiz Kirk VandenBerghe (HealthyNewAge.com) for his help to make this possible… If you’re a person like me who has way too many things going, you need to be really efficient lest the whole enchilada comes crashing down on you. I’m praying that this blog approach to sharing will be a step in that joyful efficiency.If you are interested in the things that I have to share, the adventures that I go on, and the projects that I’m involved in, then you’ll subscribe to my blog posts through our RSS feed……and that will make it easy for me to communicate and reach out. (more…)