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.