I am excited to be in my first Ciscolive US starting tomorrow in Orlando, Florida. This post is about how I spent my time on the way to CLUS.

When I decided I will go to CLUS, I booked my return flight from MEL – IAH (Houston) from 31st May to 17th June. At that time, I did not have a clear plan how I spend my time heading toward CLUS. I wanted to see few of my friends during this trip.

When I checked  who is around in Houston & available on those days, noticed Chandana (fellow CCIE Wireless from Sri Lanka) lives there. I never met him earlier, but we exchanged messages through twitter. He kindly agreed to host me for couple of nights in Houston. I came to Houston on 31st May and he picked me from the Airport. Even though we met first time, I felt him like a good old friend. Even with a difficult situation in his personal life (in fact he came back from SL on 30th after a short visit to see his parents). Through him, I got to know few of his friends all worked in same company (DataVox) & many of them studied in same University  that I went in SL. Here are them & all are CCIEs (Chandana is the first from left)

He introduced me to his VP (Namal– another SL CCIE  & product of same University). I had a nice conversation with him as well.  I am glad that I met all of them in that short stay & encouraged them to practice mindfulness among the busy daily work schedule. If anyone  of you met me after 2015, you would know that I highlight importance of “being in the moment” more than anything. That’s a wonderful thing that helps me to be happy in my life. Here is Namal with me.

Then I headed to Mexico to see a friend called Daniel. I got to know him through my blog few years back ( I think since 2013). He is one of those person that kept our friendship  beyond normal interaction through blog comments. He also became a member of CSC VIP class 2018 that makes our relationship stronger.

Once I did my first Vipassana retreat in 2015, I suggested him to go for it. Time went fast & until 2018 he could not go for it. Once I said to him, if he does a 10 day Vipassana retreat, I will visit him 🙂 . He trusted my words and went for his first Vipassana retreat in Jan 2018 in Mexico. I had to keep my promises and thought visit him during this trip to CLUS. That’s how I ended up in Mexico city for 3 days.

Even though someone does a Vipassana retreat, that does not mean it is an easy task to practice it daily and make it a part of daily routine. So I wanted to show him how I practice it daily and use “walking meditation” to live in the moment. I am really glad, not only him, but also his mother & spouse showed great interest to learn that technique & willing to practice in future. We had a practice session in a nice nature park near Mexico city.

Next destination was Indiana to see Dhanushka & his family. He was one of my close friend who studied together with me in University of Moratuwa. He did Computer Sci where as I did Electronis & Telecom. However based on our last name (Nayanajith & Menikkumbura) we were in the same group for 1st year (before move on to specialization). That helped us to have a close friendship. We haven’t met each other since our graduation in 2003. So after 15 years we met in  West Lafayette where he is doing his PhD in Perdue University.

Main reason for that visit also to show him the path that I am practicing to be in the moment & encourage him to start practicing it. Once I visited his University, I realiased there are lot of opportunity to practice mindfulness  on those beautify walking paths (see below). All of his family showed great interest & already started doing that with daily walking sessions.

I felt like I was able to provide some value to those individuals &  enjoyed every moment of it. I hope they will continue their practices & enjoy being in the moment.

Now I am in Orlando & hope to see many new faces starting tomorrow. I know lot of them virtually (through online forums/social media/etc) , this is the chance to make those friendship stronger. So I am looking forward to it.

If you reading this post & coming to CLUS, let’s try to catch up ( I know it may not that easy to find each other). However there is a WiFi meetup organized by us (WiFiTraining) on 12th Tuesday 6:30PM -8:30PM, See if you can Join us (Pls RSVP using this link), not only to meet me, many other  WiFi colleagues (Chris Avants, George Stefanick, Francois Verges & many more)

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