A few excerpts from the week...
March 2- Shivaratri (Holy Day)
Warm, blue, breezy, and free. The energy of everyone here and celebratory is strong. Sister is aimless, but it is refreshing after watching her everyday toil through her chores from before we rise until after we go to sleep. To witness Ama sprawled out on the straw mat, half asleep but to tease me in Nepali and occasionally pass me grapes, compared to her usually tireless labor. And Baa, the unresting soul that he is, granted time to relax only to fill it with making making more bamboo baskets. As other men of the village wander lazily and purposelessly, he fills the day productively, while never ceasing to be an attentive host to the others. A day to spend with family, to appreciate and enjoy.
March 3-
Every morning here is like camping. Wake up at 6, lie in your sleeping bag until 7, sometimes 8, pretty much until you can't put off going pee any longer. A bit chilly when you first walk outside, but it is refreshing, and it will warm up quickly with the ascending sun. Splashing your face awake from the cold tap, brushing your teeth without the use of a sink or clean water. Walking around the clay yard barefoot, feeling the skin directly in contact with the natural, something that can goes days without occurring sometimes at home. Taking in the weather of the morning, gazing up at the white mountains, and listening to the abundance of birds. Larger animals just as present, but more hesitant to boast of their presence so freely. Their positions, though desirable, better left unknown. It is a life entwined in nature, a life lived dependent on the earth in the most direct and earnest way. It is not poor, it only cannot afford the complications of the West, of the city. If I were smart, I would claim it as my own, this life, but the conditioning of my past has enforced the belief that simple is not better or more efficient. That depending on the manufactured goods which I'm accustomed to is a superior form of life that only a moron would give up. It would be a step backward, an insult to evolution.
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2 comments:
Interesting. Thanks for sharing so much of what you are experiencing. i look forward to further discussion about this with you. I am surprised that you would see it as a step backwards. Maybe there is a compromise of some kind between where you are now, and what you are comparing it to. LOVE YOU, mom
Moommm... I was saying that that's what other people would say, that's not what I think. Love you too, and looking forward to discussing more when I get home.
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