Well, India is very ... Indian!

I haven't written here for so long, and so much has happened, I don't know where to start. I began teaching ecology and that was very profound for me, because of how much I learned and because of the way the story finally got to play itself out to a much deeper conclusion than simply bits and pieces in blogs and conversations. From there we packed up our house, rented it out and moved to a private (Unitarian) camp for the summer. Situated right on the Niagara Escarpment north of Orangeville, Ontario, this 50 acre pristine pseudo-wilderness gave us an opportunity to create a calm and quiet atmosphere to help Jasper find resolution for his double-hearing conflict (newmedicine.ca). We lived for the summer in a 50 square foot trailer, hiking around to the pond, the woods, the frog areas, other lovely spots. Meanwhile, I began what I call "nature meditations," following the Kamana Wilderness Awareness course (highly recommended!). So while Jasper went deaf and then went hyper-sensitive in the auditory department, I was fox-walking and owl-eyeing around the Niagara Escarpment. It began for me (or maybe teaching ecology began for me) my "shamanic journey." I really got into the German New Medicine this summer, delving deeper and deeper into the way that the evolved body-brain interacts with psychic/cultural experiences to create who we are in any given moment. For me, panic attacks grew out of a refugee conflict ("who am I? Where do I belong?") when I was 27 years old and my mother left the country and I couldn't "take care of" her anymore. I discovered this last May when we decided to go to India and my flying phobia reared up.

The planned highlight of my summer was a permaculture design course in July. There I learned so many practical tyhings, my fears of walking away are now really insignificant. I could feed and heal myself without difficulty now. Permaculture is not just about intensive gardening, it is about maximum energy conservation and sustainable culture. Itching to start applying these principles, I spent the rest of July and August forest gardening at the camp, learning from the woods, planning next year's work, and eating day-lilies.

Almost as an afterthought, nervous about flying to India in September, I took an enlightenment intensive on a whim. I thought perhaps it would help me to integrate all the stuff that I'd studied since the beginning of the year. Well. I don't know where to begin talking about the EI, except to say that I will never even begin to explain the experience, and I don't care to even try. Shamanic journey, here I am! Briefly, I suppose I could explain that it is an approach to directly experiencing reality or the "truth" using a combination of the technique of enquiry ("who am I?" "what is life?") developed by Ramana Maharshi, and the technique of dyads to communicate the experience. Anyway, you can look it up. It was an awesome experience and as its instructyor asked, is it possible to save the world without first saving yourself? For me, the answer is "no" because I was far too caught up in trying to belong and trying to sort out my identity.

And then that was over and we packed up the trailer and headed for India in mid-September!

We got off the plane in Chennai (having overcome my fear of flying - about midway through the first of two flights), started to sort ourselves out time-wise, then went to Mahaballapuram. Rickshaws and buses are quite an adventure! Then after 5 days in Mahaballapuram (lovely, tourist trap), when we were ALMOST over our jet-lag, we went to Pondicherry (lovely, French, tourist trap) for three nights. Another 4-night excursion to Truchy (Tiruchiappalai) by train, and then we went back north to our new "home," where we'll settle in and live for a while instead of being tourists. There are so many temples to see, we aren't at all going out of our way to see them. I want to see WILDLIFE!

We are now in Thiruvanamalai in our rented house for the month. It's very beautiful, inside a walled one-acre garden with full-time gardener (there are three men who share the job). There are four dogs that live there, and they live in the big dog house during the day but come out at night (to keep out snakes and monkeys) and they are very friendly and love to play with Jasper - they wait outside the door to see if he wants to come out to play. They are a kind of Indian dog, big, white, called "rajasomethingorother" I'll have to look it up. Three males and their mother.

We are a 3km walk from the Ashram (Ramana Maharshi - what kind of coincidence is that?) which has a little commercial area around it in which I am typing this blog. It's another 2km to the town itself, and I haven't been there yet, though Jasper and Chris went to market there yesterday.  Sometime this month (or not) we will do a day trip to Pondicherry and hopefully get to a computer that is high-tech enough to properly download my e-mail and upload photos. Meanwhile, I just keep snappin' them!

Rainy season is supposed to have started. So far, one really nice downpour. It began about 8 seconds after we got off the bus in Thiruvanamalai on Monday night. THAT was an interesting day! We stayed in an absolutely ritzy "retiring room" at the railway station in Truchy, then got up and took a 6:30 am train to Villipuram, where we had to transfer to bus because they are expanding that section of the rail line from narrow-gauge to broad-gauge. Well! it turns out that there was a state-wide strike on Monday until 6pm (still haven't figured out exactly what about) so we had to wait for stuff to open in Villipuram (which should actually be called VILE ipuram) until 6pm. We hung around the railway station from 9 am to 4:30 pm, then a stinky, hot 3km walk through Vileipuram to the bus station, then an INSANE bus ride through the bumpy night to Thiruvanamalai. There was a little break during the trip when the tire on the bus had to be changed.... even in my white-knuckled stupor, I did observe myself enough ("who is doing the observing?") and my surroundings enough to notice across the road from the tire-changing operation was an electrically-lit grass hut barber shop. Contrasts within contrasts.

Then off the bus (thank god) into a downpour and then we called and someone gave us a ride to our place and it was SO NICE!! geckos, dogs and all!! It's a very peaceful area, since most people are here to meditate and get enlightened. The touts and beggars have to tone it down. We tithe, but make an effort to give to different people each time.

Jasper is doing a lot of talking lately. His newest word is "dick." It's as clear as a bell, and it refers to his... penis. I don't know where he learned it

Well, cheers

Laura