Splinter and Indian Market

As I am writing this in an old school wicker chair, I lifted my left foot up and the hugest splinter went in my heel. It hurts and I am soaking my foot now to get ready to perform tweezer surgery. Problem is I can’t reach it very well to get it out. I know you would think with my limber ways from all this yoga, I should be able to bring it right up to my eyes and pull it out with my teeth. But that is not happening at the moment.

With 6 days left of practice at the shala, I will hobble up there at 4 a.m. tomorrow and practice lifting my heel slightly up off the mat if I have to.

The last 2 days we have been picking up things here and there: mala beads, clothes, etc. Tina, who runs one of the restaurants, took us to her friend who sells kids clothes. All the clothes were on their way to the Gap, Old Navy, and other stores, but somehow they are in her closet. It didn’t seem to be black market, I am saying that these were “extras”. So this is her business. Very nice woman and her kids are great. Mags played with them and loved it and I selected some great pieces for about $1 - 2 each.

Mags has been asking to go to school these days. There are schools all over the place and every time she sees one, she says, “Maggie’s school.” So this morning I took her to the daycare my Western friends take their kids to. She was there last Saturday morning and loved it. We packed her lunch this morning and off we went. Julia and Vera met us at the coconut stand and Swami drove all of us there. When we pulled up, Mags ran out with her Hello Kitty lunch box, took off her shoes and ran up the stairs. That was it, gone! Julia, Vera and I headed to the market. We decided not to take Mags here, because it is narrow aisles outdoors and lots of commotion. Too much to watch our purses, try and shop and have all the people swarm here trying to take pictures of her.  Not to mention it was 102 degrees today by 11 a.m.

The market is great, tons of vegetable vendors, incense makers, teas/spices, puja flowers. You name it. Vera is good at haggling, so she haggled for us. It’s hard for me to haggle when something is 50 cents to begin with, but she was doing that ad we got a few fun things. I really wanted to buy some spices, but am figuring out how best to bring them home. The saffron here is so inexpensive that it is worth it to wrap it and bring it back.

Meditation with Kumar was great this week. There were about 30 of us in the room and he takes us to a great meditation for an hour. The first day was getting in touch with “fear”. I again went back to me being an animal. This time I am a tiger cub. I saw my parents attack a deer and eat it, nudging me to partake. I was thoroughly disgusted and thought, why can’t we just eat berries. Makes sense now why I am a vegetarian this lifetime. Day 2 was “Anger”. I didn’t go back to my animal days, but I did go back to high school when I did have a lot of anger built up. Majority of the people went back to situations with their mom or dad. This is a good reminder for me to always be kind and gentle with Maggie, no matter how difficult times may get with her and I. It was nice both days to get in touch with these feelings and cleanse them. Kumar says we have all lived at least 100 lives and that we have no conscious of our lives till we become human. So we first cleanse our human lives, then we can work back to our animal lives and then our plant lives, then our spiritual being lives. That is a lot of work and it is why no one has reached Samadhi in our lifetime. That is the reason for yoga and meditation to become enlightened in Samadhi and move on.  I am ready to peel this onion of myself. Next week is more emotions that we will explore.
As my last week is approaching, I am going to start going to chanting classes all next week with Jayarsharee. She is the mother of all chanters and people, gurus and all, come to see and study with her. She was just on a US tour and the Portland shala with Anne Finstad hosted her. I was here, so I am honored she is back and I’ll be able to get a few days of chanting with her.

Our dogs are doing well. We neutered #11 yesterday. He is a good guy, one of my favorites. When Mags and he see each other in the street, it is as if they have this amazing love affair happening. She screams, Bubba! and they run right to each other. He did well with his surgery. When we picked him up by rickshaw, I saw they notched his ear this time. They said it’s what they are to do now so that the animal control and everyday people know not to poison them. This lets them know they are spayed/neutered and vaccinated and should be spared. I said can’t you put a collar or tag on them or something less violent them notching a piece out of their ear. They said no. I have no more words and realize this is India and they think very differently than we do. I am thankful for them working with me on all the dogs. We have one little guy left who is severely covered with mange. He will go in on Saturday. I am not sure what the doc will say as he is pretty bad off and cries all the time. Very heartbreaking. The remainder money for the last 8 dogs (20 in all) will go into certificates which I am handing out to the garbage collectors here. They live in shanties a few blocks away and have been asking for help with their dogs.

Again I am so honored that we are here. I am blessed that my lovely husband, Ray, has let us come here and take this journey. I am learning so much.

Om.