Blessings

I was sitting on a local bus next to a larger lady wrapped in a red and cream colored sari this evening. She sat there staring at me. I’ve gotten used to this. Everybody stares here. I relaxed my bones into the old 1970’s blue leather cushions, leaned my head back allowing the bun of my hair to act as a pillow and closed my eyes. The day’s dust has settled (or maybe we just can’t see it in the dark) and there is a calmness over the open fields we pass. The streets seem bare compared to the daily hustle and bustle. Our bus driver takes advantage of this space, cruises the bus at what seems like 60 miles an hour on this rural road and still passes every moving obstacle that flashes before its head lights. It’s better not to look ahead and instead to put complete faith into the driver’s skills; this is my new policy. Do not look and trust. 

When my eyes open again, they immediately notice brightness in the evening sky.  Silhouettes of trees, tin rooftops, browned rice fields, and free roaming cows are between my dust covered window and a vibrant full moon.  Such peace is necessary to offset the hectic days of people-packed India.  What a blessing that this full moon will transition the night into our tomorrow.  And what another blessing it is to have two birthdays in India in a row! My heart smiles.  Today has been such a lovely day, the past year has been a strong one, and my life has been one richly lived.  With the National Geographic scenery passing by me, I can’t help reflecting. I want to be as luminous as the round pearl-like surface of the moon.  And as that will be my life challenge, I at least know that I have lived some luminous moments in this day.

My eyes reflect on the happy memories from the day, like my own private movie.  Here is one memory that will hopefully become a long story friendship. Our rickshaw driver, Babu, stops by his house (an unasked for detour on our way to the small local grocery store) and so we welcome the experience.  My friend and I meet his twin sons, an older son, his neighbor’s peanut infant, his wife and his mother-in-law.  I smile, say “Namaskar” (hello in Kannada), offer the Namaste sign and bobble my head to the best of my ability. This seems to have pleased all and I feel like one of the family, sitting in the small entrance of his house and tailoring business.  Clothes are strewn over benches and hangers, people are coming to drop off needed repairs, and heads are peeping in to have a good stare at us.

  

We are offered homemade Chai and I’m trying hard not to do my own peeking into the kitchen. I can see greens pushing out of small copper bowls, some orange sari material, and an array of cooking equipment. His wife, clad in the orange sari, comes out from the kitchen covering her hair and arms more completely with the sari material.  We do our best to communicate between broken English and a couple Kannada phrases.  We learn that Babu hopes to expand his house in the next couple of months, he shows us examples of male and female clothes he makes, and his older son is in college studying the Arts.  He wants to show us his temple and so we organize to visit another day.  He bobbles his head and offers a sweet smile in agreement.  As we are about to leave, the wife bobbles her head asking us to hold tight for a minute, goes into the depths of her kitchen and gracefully walks straight to me.  Before our departure she blesses us with red and yellow color dye between our eyebrows.  The red dye is to signify your third eye, the center of your being. The yellow color means purity. I make sure the color does not fade all day. 

With the moon shining down on me, I embrace the light it envelopes me in.  My heart is as full as the moon.  And may my heart continue to feel full each and every day of this next year. I am so blessed.