The little ones.

Everything that happens is from now on.

This is paradise.

The children are by far the greatest light and experience of absolute magic. After 3 different boys asked me for pens I went and bought a whole bunch and now carry them with me to give them out. These boys in the photo holding their prize pens encirlced me at an Ashram and each one shared their names and shook my hand. They have so much passion to speak their few english words and just, well look at me with the shiniest bright eyes. I wanted to take them all home, and that's the hardest thing about being here, I want to take everyone home! Oh yeah, I guess I really don't have a home right now. Sometimes the only thing to do is share a smile, and that's experience enough for touching each others lives.

Take a walk and lose some Karma!

I've spent six days in the Guru saturated town of Tiruvanamalai. The Gurus, Sages, and their followers have all come here for a good reason. The town lays at the base of the sacred Mt. Arunachala where it is believed that Shiva's most powerful energy dwells. At the base also sits the largest Shiva Temple in all of India. The temple tower entrances have an uncanny resemblance to the pyramid forms in Mexico and Egypt, the largest one looms 13 stories high. At the center of this 2,000 yr old temple are rooms and corridors so quiet and still I could see how Sadhus have been known to meditate in them for years at a time.

I really came to this place to witness the Nation wide all night celebration of Shivaratri. The new moon night is filled with devotional worship to Shiva's whose energy assists in clearing karma. I met up with two South American friends whom I met at Amma's Ashram and we joined the masses on the 8 mile pilgrimage around the mountain. When we weren't all laughing (from exhaustion) and chanting together they were singing me Spanish songs to the puzzlement of the fellow Pilgrims. With a small temple every few hundred feet I can't count how many I saw that night, or how many times I chanted to Shiva to help me make it to the end. It was long and somewhat uncomfortable, but I did cheat a little by wearing shoes, unlike the thousands of Indians who make the journey barefoot. About a million Indians came from near and far to take this pilgrimage, and some had to do it in mid-day heat of 90 degrees, as in the photo with the men wearing limes all over their bodies. The effort was absolutely worth it, I'm exhilarated to have released some unnecessary baggage. Not too bad, take a walk and lose some karma!

Tamil Nadu...timeless

India is a sense unto itself. I call it the sense of overwhelm, when all of the senses are being used to their absolute maximum at the same time. In the simple act of standing on a street corner I can smell the spices on the hot pan next to me, the putrid smell of urine, a garland of jasmine flowers passing by, cow dung, the exguast from hundreds of rickshaws, the sound of thousands of people in a very big hurry, and all their voices, horns, bollywood blasting, and tireless shuffling of essential goods (of the likes I've never seen before) everywhere. Then there is the cuisine, which is a whole other universe of senses all together. This place is stimulating more things than my small mind has ever imagined. The pace of India is kind of a time warp. Despite the insane speed of traffic, sounds, and movement of street throngs, you can count on waiting for a good long while as the street vendor finishes his conversation before taking your rupees for a bottle of water. It's all so very fast, yet so very slow. It's both the beauty and the frustration, the absurd and the divine. It's everything all at once, and it's been going on forever, timelessly.

The Village Wedding

The events that led to arriving at this village wedding are a matter of coincidence, luck, and a kind invitation by a man named Ganesh. I ran into Ganesh twice in one day, and after the second meeting and some time spent in a temple together he asked if I would like to join him to see his cousin be married. Well, ok! "Why not" seems to be my phrase of the season, and so it happened that the following day I found myself being the only white woman in the very center of a throng of sari wrapped wedding goers. I walked in and the heads turned to look, then hands started to reach out and pull me far into the crowd to be smack right in front of the bride and groom. The ceremony was already underway, but that didn't stop the bride's father from excitedly questioning my country of origin, impressions of India, etc. I tried not detracting all of the attention from the ceremony at hand as best I could, but it was rather pointless. I was absolutely famous. What followed was an amazing village gathering where I joined them in eating(with my hands) rice and other unrecognizable things off of banana leaves. In talking with the bride and groom I understood that it was a great honor to have me there, even though I was a complete stranger and it was really an honor for me to be there! It was amazing to say the least, and many uproars of laughter surfaced as my camera and I played with the kids. By the way the red smear that is often on my forhead is a blessing of colored powder given in temples and ceremonies. As the Hindu deities are worshipped their is always a pot of sacred ash or colored powder provided to bless yourself with the deity.

A new life!

That's it, India has my heart in her hands. Even though by the end of some days I want to run back to a much more sanitary and sane place I've decided to stay and live life on the crazy road. I've traded in my clunky Keen shoes for this gem of a Rickshaw, and am really getting the hang of the whole bartering with my customers thing. Of course I always ask 3 times as much as their ride is worth, and then after several head bobs I agree for twice as much. The exhaust is kind of an issue, but when my nose gets clogged I just shoot a snot rocket out the side and try to miss my passengers. There is much to be learned in the art of horn blowing!

जय Ganesh

My first kiss by an elephant on Valentines day!

This lady elephant was hanging out inside the temple. In Shiva temples only female elephants are allowed, and in Krishna temples only male elephants. It only makes sense, right?

As usual my camera was my eye, and I was shooting some pics of a man and his little boy. I've quickly discovered that you get into the right crowd here and you might get stuck being their portrait photographer for the rest of the day, which is always a blast of laughter and a glorious experiement of communicating without words. The happy man ran to gather his whole family who beautifully posed for me. When I interact with the people using my camera each face holds such a humble beauty that I will always remember. Then out into the cacophony of noise and traffic and cows!

Toto, we are not at the Ashram anymore...

After two weeks of being held by the gentle land of Kerala, it's time to set out.
The signs and visuals of India are as confusing as every answer and head bob
that I encounter. Figuring out which train car my seat is in is no exception. As soon as I settle into a seat that I know isn't mine I'm surrounded by families and young eager boys who need to know my name and shake my hand. A skinny aged woman wrapped in a Sari plants herself next to me and asks with unstopable curiosity, "What caste are you from?" Uuuuhhhhh...
Following a round of his own questions and dialogue a kind fellow tells me I'm sitting in the local car, and that he would take me to me to the right place "where this won't happen." The next 10 hours were a hilarious circle of musical sleeping compartments as the seat numbers
would magically and so rationally be changed as new passengers got on.
I arrived in Madurai to greet the sun coming up over the Sri Menakshi temple.
This temple is over 3,000 years old, and you can feel it all pulsating in layers of shakti dust and ancient smells.

Aaaaahhhh, a bit of heaven

Before leaving for my trip almost everyone asked the same question with a sense of concern, "are you traveling alone?" While I set out alone, my time has been mostly spent with fellow travelers, all coming along just at the right time. Having another westerner around to barter for the taxi ride, problem solve through the bureaucratic conundrum of train tickets, and just to sit and watch it all go by has been a delightful blessing. Karen and I arrived at the Ashram on the same day, and bonded like super glue. While getting hugs from Amma and being blasted by her unconditional Love was powerfully shaking things up, after the sixth day we both needed a little R & R. To the beach!

Lesson number one, NEVER miss your stop on an Indian train. Just one stop earlier would have saved us a 2 hour rickshaw ride back to the idyllic beach town of Varkala. Of course we made the most of it and chanted the whole way with our crazy French magician friend as a ladies bodyguard. Swimming in the Arabian Sea was pure medicine for me heart and soul. Warm, life giving, forgiving, cleansing, and absolutely beautiful. We found a hotel for $5 a night equipped with more comforts than our Ashram penthouse could compare with, like a real bed. We lapped it up along with 3 mango lassies a day. Every night the towns electricity shut off until the generators could get started, so dinner was eaten by candle light on the sea cliffs.

Absolute highlights: Going to a Kathakali (traditional south Indian dance) performance, buying Indian Ganesh bling off of local kids, helping an illiterate jeweler from Ladakh write a letter, and being healed by the sea.

You never Know

The Guest House -- RUMI

This being human is a guesthouse
Every morning a new arrival
A joy, a depression, a meanness
Some momentary awareness
Comes as an unexpected visitor
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture
Still treat each guest honorably
He may be cleaning you out
For some new delight!
The dark thought, the shame, the malice
Meet them at the door laughing
And invite them in
Be grateful for whoever comes
Because each has been sent
As a guide from the beyond.

By the 6th morning of being woken at 4:30am to chanting over the LOUD speakers, I was all about it! I've hardly gotten much sleep at the Ashram, but there's a buzz inside of me that wouldn't have it any other way. I awake and enter the dark morning from my 15th floor room that my roommate and I call "the penthouse". I don't want to miss out on witnessing this culture's fierce hold on ritual, tradition, and tireless spirituality. It's humbling and fortifying.

This hasn't been easy. In fact it's been pretty difficult. Not because I was greeted by a dead bat in my bathroom bucket upon arriving or that I can't take a shower, or that the Princess and the Pea is sleeping on a floor mat. All of that pales in comparison with what I'm really facing. Before I left for my trip a friend of mine said this grain of absolute truth, "It's not so much where you go in India, because India is an internal experience. It will take you there where ever you are." Right now I don't have a choice, I have to look inside, because this is who I want to be, and this is the way that I've chosen.
As internal as it is, new and beautiful friends are abundant. To be one of the drops moving in this vast sea of seekers; sharing, struggling, questioning, laughing, and crying all together makes it all the more rich.
Photos are coming soon!

Kerala, South India लवविथौत्बौन्द्स

Do you know where the horn is? Do you know how to use it?
Good, now you can drive in India.
I've always been into chanting, but there have only been a few times in my life when I have absolutely NEEDED to chant. The 3 hour taxi ride from the airport to Amma's Ashram
required me to chant, and hold on, and close my eyes. How can I close my eyes, this place is unbelievable and I want to see it all! I'll be a pro chanter by the end of these 2 months as I'll have to get around this insane realm of India somehow. It's uncomfortable here, it's pushing my edges of how dirty I can be, feel, eat, witness, and I love it. I love the needing to let go into such a different place, or else I'll just be stuck in my head and miserable. It doesn't stop, just like the Kaliyuga, this chaos just spins around and around at full speed, all of the time. I know that some where in it all there is a pause, like that drifting state of sleep just before the chanting begins at 5am and I enter the Kali temple hall and sit quietly. Finding friends already to laugh about it all with. This is a good start. Hari Om! हरी ॐ!

Bangkok, Yikes!

3 days here was enough. Unfortunately I have to go back just to pass through.
I found my priorities really fast: don't really breath a lot (not only for the smog, but this place is stinky!). One of the grimiest cities, and yet the general style of these locals is spotless
without a hair out of place. High-lights: seeing the Golden Reclining Buddha, and eating fresh
mangosteen naked.