I have been in India now since October 6th – 2 months- and how they have flown.

My days lean into each other.. am I busy?.. absolutely – so what is different about my life here .. that holds my heart that catches me and connects me?

I look out of my window and the valley merges into the hillside – the pattern on the valley floor a kaleidoscope of different greens and browns.  The sounds of the kids playing down on the flat playground come practice area for our karate group are all around me.. noisy.. yes it certainly is sometimes.. but there is also a depth of quiet that is profound in between the laughs and the chatter of the children.

I have cried buckets since I have been here.. and until a couple of days ago, didn’t really understand what that has been about.  Until I heard a downloaded talk by Andrew Harvey on Sacred Activism.

Here I was squashed into an unbelievably small patch of corridor on the Pune – Mumbai Express Train 7am.. not an inch between me and the next people.. in fact we could not fall over.. there was no space to do so.  Okay I said to myself.. I am going to be in this position for a couple of hours so I may as well listen to something else than the train noises and the yells of those who incredibly are still trying to sell things as they squeeze past pushing us further into intimacy with those next to us.

So I dig out my iphone and plug in my headset.. and choose a random talk from the Food For All Summit calls.  Here was a man Andrew Harvey, speaking about just what I had been experiencing.  His name for it is Sacred Activism.

And the first thing he said in these times that is needed is to experience the breaking of your heart.  The synchronicity that is occurring in my life is miraculous to me.. how is it possible that I receive just the answer I need at just the time I need it?

Here was this man talking to me about how when you leave behind your addictions.. and those things that hold your protective shell around you.. when you strip these away.. then the reality of the world is revealed.. and at this time – that reality can be incredibly painful.

Here for me.. the pain is related to Mother Earth.. as each injustice is done to her I have been feeling it as my own pain – as the trees are chopped for firewood around me in the forest, I feel the baring of the earth and the pain of the trees.  As I see the emaciated body of a man lying on the street and it is unclear whether he is still living or not.. I feel the pain of our humanity and the wretchedness of our inhumanity.

And then we turn the corner and meet a 95 year old gentleman whose generosity of heart floods all the pain away.

I cannot describe the amazement that is present and the gratitude that flows as I see this world with clear eyes – gratitude for being – gratitude to the timeless nature of things – gratitude for the simplest events – and my days flow into one another being here, in service to our children – the future of our earth.

India has almost swallowed me whole!  I have neglected my blog and been absorbed totally in the sights sounds colours smells and vastness of this land.  It is vast in a completely other way to Australia – vast in the sense of the massive population, the expanse of mind stretching experiences and .. and.. and….

Where shall I begin to tell you of my own expansion here?

Let’s start with a small story, but a story which has brought tears to my eyes and has once again shown me that Existence, God, the Universe .. whatever it is you would like to call it.. is just there at the tips of our fingers when we stretch to embrace it.

It’s morning here in India – I am very fortunate, I am in a comfortable and beautiful place, the home of my friend Nandini – (you will hear more of her and her work soon) and a visitor arrived to our door.  A gentleman aged 78 years. who is in his words gainfully employed and even busier since his retirement.  He is passionate about organic farming – and is organising a cooperative of farmers and helping them with the marketing of their organic produce.  That may sound insignificant given the degree of acceptance of organics in places like Australia – but here it is in its infancy.

We shared some thoughts, and talked a bit – I asked him if he would act as advisor to our garden project at the new Orphanage site – and then just at the end, he asked me.. do you know anyone who does biodynamics.. the links are made .. One Man One Cow One Planet – Peter Proctor – here in India to help the farmers revive and restore their land after the disastrous Green Revolution speaheaded by Monsanto.

The web of the network spreads, I can’t tell you how this made me feel.. it was like I am acting as a node in a huge interconnectedness .. a maven or a linchpin if you like to borrow from Seth Godin’s terms.  The node is small, the node is insignificant on its own and cannot act on its own, but given the connections, given the inner space to allow the flow to move through it, it can facilitate the connection to the greater whole and can allow the spark to travel fast around the network, joining , connecting, flowing and allowing.

I stood completely humbled by this seemingly small experience, and experience that showed me so clearly that being right here right now is the perfect place for me.  and letting go into the flow of existence is all that is needed now and always.

And now the day after I wrote that story above, I have the news from home that my rented house has been put on the market!!  I am asked to move by end of February.. just the time when I was planning to bring the first of the ‘voluntourism’ trips to India.. and not only that.. Maya Shahani of the Sage Foundation has invited me to come and work here with Nandini and herself!  I almost feel as though I am in a roller coaster – it is of my own making, as I put my hand up but it has picked me up and has barrelled me along with it.. who is in control any more?  Me? or have I simply offered, and been accepted for a role which is once more way more expansive than that which I ever imagined?

I can only laugh and stand in awe at the way the world is turning around me and rearranging itself to suit the current pictures of reality which are evolving as I write.