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| One of the camels |
The lessons from living in such a diversity of countries has been remarkable. Like a family or friends that you don't see for a while, there is a sense of community as an individual who even just drops in yearly. This is the sixth year that I have walked the streets of Jaipur and I have a community: the bottle collectors, the Babas, the elephant people, the camel people, the school children, the shop keepers, the exercisers, the hill people, the going to work people, the road workers, the tent community, and people who just see me on a regular basis and wave. Without the living and walking at such an intimate level (I have done this wherever I have lived...), I couldn't have gotten to know the oneness of it all. We are all just two-leggeds living out some variation of survival on the Earth.
In India, starting as a white, woman walking with a shirt that said money or sex, to a white, woman walking who is here with a spiritual intention has been a remarkable teaching. I never had an intention to fit in, I just wanted to survive, focus on my inner work in the ashram, not get sick, or be molested. To see this community grow without intention, just presence of being my self, setting boundaries, consistency, and staying the course is fascinating. It has even started to happen in Carbondale, Colorado with the pattern I have of working at two ranches, gym, coffee shop for wifi, and the grocery store. A community is started through eye contact, patience, routine, and small interactions. I think of myself as being invisible, but I am not. People are watching, assessing cues, and taking action accordingly. I am part of the community whether "invisible" or not.
Every day, four times a day, I talk to a particular camel who is tied alone. He has a very damaged nose, so I talk to him and wish him well every time I pass by. He knows my voice now and lowers his head towards me, (I don't know camel language, so I am hesitant to try and touch him), so simple. Now I better understand that it is that simple with two-leggeds as well. A head nod to the man who pushes his bike up the hill with full jugs of water while I am finishing my run down the hill. A wave to the man who drives down the hill with a loaded motorcycle of cut grass as I walk up the hill. An exchanged smile with the woman who is going about her morning chores as I walk by on the street.
Something about this new homework assignment to move more deeply inside has softened the exterior world. I have been given permission to make it my secondary focus, but still interacting from the vibration of what is growing inside. Another veil has shifted. Feeling very blessed to feel this sense of oneness from now the outside as well as the inside. Beautiful conversation about it with Gurudev and he also helped me to see the oneness of all exercise as yoga whether sitting on a mat with an awareness of breath or running up the hill with an awareness of breath. Breathing and living. More circles.
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| Sorting through the stream of refuse in a local waterway |
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| Morning rituals as part of the morning fabric |
