Thursday, June 03, 2004
Midweek moonday
Sun rising a little after six amidst candyfloss clouds in skies of liquid honey. Last night’s rains left the ground moist, leaves shiny, breeze cool in the morning light. Have been allowing for more time by myself, to myself. The me that had to speak to thirty people before lunch is starting to slowly accept and relish that it’s OK to be quiet, alone, for a while. To drive around in the general direction but not the direct road to where I am going. To spend half an hour, an hour even, “just” reading (currently sinking teeth into Margaret Atwood’s “The Blind Assassin” as I work on Alexander Frater’s “Chasing the Monsoon” and finishing Chapter I of the Baghavad Gita and attempting to memorize, or at least chant somewhat correctly, Chapter I of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras). To go up to my roof, just to see what shapes the clouds are taking at the moment. To take a moment to see how many stars I can catch at moonset as I leave for practice a little after 4:30. To be a serial monotasker, where it’s fine to just be tackling one errand, task, person, project at a time rather than attempt to tidy up as I brush my teeth and plan my day.
Was happy and excited for the two groups leaving town for the moonday at breakfast yesterday, while sharing little desire to be joining them. One batch is visiting Hampi about eight hours away and missing two days of classes, the other off to Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement a couple of hours away. We daytripped out that way last Saturday. Two vans, fifteen people plus drivers, one afternoon of changing scenery and new imagery as we joined the Indian tourists visiting the Golden Temple, a vast hall with three massive (gilt?) Buddhas reflecting light and attracting sparrows. We stayed for a puja, had a fancy (South Indian, since we were gravely informed by our driver Nataraj that all Tibetan food is prepared in meat-fat) meal, visited a second temple, got caught in a dramatic downpour, holed up in a shop where many thousands of Rupees changed hands, gabbed the entire way back to Mysore. I think, the first time I’ve left the city since I arrived two and a half months ago. Felt really good.
Want to plan a nice trip for next weekend moonday; either a trip to the southernmost state of Kerala (Amachi’s?) or to the lush coffee plantationland in Coorg (any recommendations?). Today, happy taking it easy in observance of the full moon, just resting up and going to chanting classes. Sanskrit is on hiatus for a couple of weeks, but I have also started attending Jai Shree’s classes in Laxmipuram. Lady in question is a magnificent professor and fabulous singer who lets a handful of yogastudents crash her library as she leads us through chanting the first fifty or so Yoga Sutras over a couple of hours. Ready to take it and run with it and have a little structure to my mornings, three times a week. So nice to have a bunch of fellow-students, as the class at the shala has dwindled down to just a couple of us, where there were about thirty-something back in February.
Find myself wanting to take a picture of every cloud I catch, as they put on a spectacular show at all hours of the day, under an azure or charcoal or burnt butter sky.
Was happy and excited for the two groups leaving town for the moonday at breakfast yesterday, while sharing little desire to be joining them. One batch is visiting Hampi about eight hours away and missing two days of classes, the other off to Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement a couple of hours away. We daytripped out that way last Saturday. Two vans, fifteen people plus drivers, one afternoon of changing scenery and new imagery as we joined the Indian tourists visiting the Golden Temple, a vast hall with three massive (gilt?) Buddhas reflecting light and attracting sparrows. We stayed for a puja, had a fancy (South Indian, since we were gravely informed by our driver Nataraj that all Tibetan food is prepared in meat-fat) meal, visited a second temple, got caught in a dramatic downpour, holed up in a shop where many thousands of Rupees changed hands, gabbed the entire way back to Mysore. I think, the first time I’ve left the city since I arrived two and a half months ago. Felt really good.
Want to plan a nice trip for next weekend moonday; either a trip to the southernmost state of Kerala (Amachi’s?) or to the lush coffee plantationland in Coorg (any recommendations?). Today, happy taking it easy in observance of the full moon, just resting up and going to chanting classes. Sanskrit is on hiatus for a couple of weeks, but I have also started attending Jai Shree’s classes in Laxmipuram. Lady in question is a magnificent professor and fabulous singer who lets a handful of yogastudents crash her library as she leads us through chanting the first fifty or so Yoga Sutras over a couple of hours. Ready to take it and run with it and have a little structure to my mornings, three times a week. So nice to have a bunch of fellow-students, as the class at the shala has dwindled down to just a couple of us, where there were about thirty-something back in February.
Find myself wanting to take a picture of every cloud I catch, as they put on a spectacular show at all hours of the day, under an azure or charcoal or burnt butter sky.
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