Birthday: Part 2
After a long morning of leisure, Olga came back to my apartment and we hung in the garden, soaking up some sun and chit chat. At 2pm we met up with my friend (and former teacher) Rory, and his friends Fraiser and Keiko. Rory was taking us to the old Beatles ashram which is now abandoned and off limits. It was a bit of a hike before we found a small, unidentifiable trail that led us to a back entrance of the ashram. On the walk there, Rory proclaimed that he had a gift for me. It was a crystal, but not just any crystal- it was the most beautiful crystal that I've ever seen. AND he had found it while in the mountains on his journey here (he just drove a motorcycle from Goa to Rishikesh!). Another amazing prezzie!!!! And as for the ashram, I thought it would be "cool", but I had no idea that it would be so.simply.amazing. The architecture was unbelievable. Truly. We climbed up and into these crazy sound domes, where chanting is taken to a whole new level. Olga even got a video of me singing, which was really beautiful. We explored the huge grounds and even came across a wild elephant, which charged at us!! There have been a few deaths there over the past few years with tourist getting too close to the elephants. After that adrenaline rush we just cooled down and chilled out a bit on the cliff, which overlooks all of Rishikesh and the Ganges. Rory was appalled that I hadn't swam in the Holy River yet, so just before sunset we made our way down to the shoreline and I jumped in, being sure to dunk my whole body into the ice cold sacred waters. It was liberating, refreshing, cleansing, spiritual, and truly special on this auspicious day. We took in the sunset with a tea, and then mozied back home. The day was topped off with a shanti shanti dinner at Ganesha, where my friends serenaded me with sweet tunes on the guitar.
When I got home I check in on the web and again was blown away by all of the love and well wishes that I got from everyone. Today, my first day of 26, I just feel loved. So very loved. And so very grateful for the abundance of love. It has been a blessed life indeed. The theme of today was "shanti shanti", and I think that will be the tone for these upcoming years. As my reiki instructor said "calmly active, and actively calm". I'll be taking each day as it comes, with all of its abundance and blessings..Om Shanti, Hari Om.
No comments:
Post a Comment