progress report #39

This is the blog entry i wrote 3 days ago and didn't publish because their server was down... so here it is now...

Holy hiatus girl! I apogolize to those of you who have been following the saga like a weekly soap opera. I have been very negligent in my blogging duties. What… almost 3 weeks since I wrote last? Can’t be. Oops.
Well, India continues to impress and seduce me with its wonderous occurrences and serendipitous events and I haven’t even left Rishikesh. I still feel overwhelmed from time to time, but when I do, I just retreat to my sanctuary and regroup and rest.
I have been here almost 2 months now and I am starting to feel like a local. I didn’t really think about it but… I am starting to be a long term visitor to this community. I am becoming quite familiar with many people and places and shop owners and when I meet other travelers, most of them are just passing through, a few days… a week or two, 5 weeks tops, on their way through to other places in India. I didn’t think it was that unusual to be here, you know, 9 or 10 months, but really it is, and especially unusual when I tell people that I’m pretty much staying in this area for the duration, not going far from here, maybe 25 kilometres in either direction, but I have no desire to sightsee and scatter myself and my energy all over India. It is exhausting and unsettling to travel around here, and I find I have everything I need here. I am content and satisfied. Why would I go anywhere else? Most of the travelers I meet are on a mission to see the most things possible in the shortest amount of time. I’ve traveled like this before. It’s exhausting, and you don’t really get that deep into any one place, you get just a superficial surface impression of a place and you don’t really sink into the feeling of it.
So people come and go, and I remain.
In November I will be moving into another ashram that is out of town. They have a 20 day yoga therapy course and some other interesting things happening in December, but that’s not until November. By then I will be ready to go back into the sheltered community of the ashram. It is so peaceful and sheltered from the outside world. The perfect place to practice. You don’t have to deal with the market or restaurants or hotels and your meals are provided and prepared with love and the food is so healthy. This ashram has its own cows and a garden. It’s a place that my mom picked out off the internet and I think it is going to be quite nice. We shall see in due time.
India is not a place for people who are scared of cows. We live in and amongst the cows, calves and bulls, bumping up against them, being nudged by them, feeding them, petting them and stepping around their “deposits” in the street. One develops a very close relationship with the bovine species while they are here and I pity the person who is afraid of them. I am sure those people get over it real quickly with all the exposure they get daily.
I have spent a few mornings practicing yoga with the Baba I met at the river. He really put me through my paces and had me doing some of the more advanced poses I never even knew I could do. And in fact, when I practice these poses alone, it seems I CAN’T do them quite as easily as when I practice with him... he seemed very pleased with my ability and urged me on to more and more difficult things. Some of it was exactly what I needed. A lot of upper body strengthening and core strengthening, … arm balances and the like. There are many different ways of balancing on your hands and supporting all the weight of your body on your hands.. I find this is excellent for bringing the energy up through the core of your body, and you feel like you are 10 years old again. This combined with upside down poses like headstand and shoulderstand, are the fountain of youth. They literally slow the ageing process immensely. All very interesting stuff. So I am learning a lot.
Everything is just puttering along as it should and I am delighted.
My new room, (I moved out of the ashram) is very homey. The family that owns the guest house lives downstairs and they are lovely. My room is the corner room on the third floor with a big nice balcony facing east where I can do my afternoon yoga session, looking out at the Himalayan foothills. It’s very enjoyable.
I am meeting lots of interesting people, everyday. I find it hard NOT to talk to people when I go out. I have to be more discerning because I end up spending a lot more time talking to people than reading or writing and sometimes social engagements even start to infringe on my yoga and meditation time…. So I have to be careful and when I see this happening, I pull back. Of course it is nice to meet people and talk and hang out but just a little, not too much, that is not what I came here to do. It takes discipline to NOT be a social butterfly and to focus on what I am doing here, but I am doing really well and progress is occurring and sensitivity and sharper awareness is growing everyday, steadily.