Bombs over Flag-Land

Bombs over Flag-Land

It's Diwali.
Ironically, I first heard of this holiday on the boat when I was doing charter trips last month in the Mentawais with Shayno.
There's lots of movie-time on the boats since there's nowhere to go, so we watched several seasons of The Office (American version)... And the Indian character "Kelly" celebrates the Indian holiday called Diwali with a big sparkly party.

This is not AT ALL what Diwali in Dharamshala was like.

Today was the day I got all my stuff together for the next ten days I am embarking on... Booking my tickets to Amritsar (where I will be going after the meditation) to see the Golden Palace for one night and then on to Varanasi by 22 hour train ride to meet the golden Aaron, my dear soul brother.

After having leaving the travel agent, I walked down the little crumbly McLeod Ganj street to the laundry man's store to pick up my hot-pink yak's wool blanket I just had washed.

Handing it over to me, he smiled and bobbing his head side to side wished me "Happy Diwali!"

I must have seemed really excited envisioning sparkling saris and bangles... Scarves attached to glistening nose-ring jewels and twinkling fairy lights lining the street as Bollywood dancers filed out of every door in the city.

"oh, no..." he said "just people have dinner with their families and lots of bombs light off. You probably like to sleep with earplugs tonight."

Ahhh. Okay. Bombs... Cool, cool.

I assumed he meant fireworks and continued down the street checking off my to-do list in my head and realizing I was done.
-alarm clock (not my I-phone which I have to surrender to the ashram's safe)
-toilet paper
-warm blanket
-copy of my passport and India visa
-travel arrangements for the 5th of november when I re-emerge (literally and metaphorically)


I stumbled up the stairs to the Green hotel cafe and saw my friend Pema! I almost forgot it was already lunchtime and we had a standing date to hangout and chat.

I ended up filming a video of him that I plan to post on YouTube.
He is super amazingly rad.
He has overcome such obstacles and written a book in three languages and is a teacher and such a sweet, simple loving man.

He spends all his time reading and writing so his back is screwed up. He also walks with a limp that apparently comes from an illness he had as a child that left him unable to walk.... Yet somehow, with the limp, he walked across the Himalayas and Nepal escaping the violent and oppressive Chinese occupation of his homeland.

He took me to a Tibetan hospital where we bought a special kind of medical incense that he instructed me to soak with water in my Tibetan singing bowl when I give massage or am helping heal people with different things.

Then he taught me a breathing technique done by Tibetan monks.
It is sort of a combination of nadi shohana and veloma 1 in yoga pranayama, but there are some cool hand movements in between that remind me of a Cambodian dancer.

After an early dinner I parted ways with Pema and made my way back to my room to lie down and think about everything we'd just talked about... Being Unique and Unified etc etc.

...and the bombs started.

Every time a huge explosion went off I had the instinct to dive under a table- I guess a result of growing up in LA... Where we have drive-bys and 4th of July and there is usually a clear distinction.

Although... this does not sound anything like a celebration outside my window.
The explosions echo down the valley that lies between these high mountains and the echo is like the soul shaking thunder we heard a few days ago.
Right now... On Diwali.... It sounds more like the gaza strip then the home of his holiness the Dalai Lama!

I can't help but feel like this is just another black/white illustration by the universe... Bombs going off outside, while i'm curled up in this downstairs, dark, cave-like room with the t.v. Playing some awful American comedy show.

....


I kept the t.v on until I fell asleep. (if you know me- you know I detest television) but I didn't want to have nightmares falling asleep to the explosions.

Amazingly, I woke up this morning to my own laugher.
I had phenomenal dreams last night.
I kept finding these colorfully dressed chubby, happy babies giggling that made me laugh... Jessica, Margot and I were on a beach draped across one another, eating and laughing together as the world spun before us...
And then I was underwater swimming with a clean, clear mask on... Exploring the world underwater, somehow able to hold my breath forever and ever effortlessly.

My dreams were all SO vivid and AWESOME.

I am ready

10 days of sinking deeply into meditation, breathing light, studying Buddhism and being silent?

I can do this.

Although I was pretty upset about the "no music" rule... I was going to petition and say that my father and every person I have ever lived with in my life has been a musician and I feel sick without music around me...
I thought I could promise to only listen to quiet, meditation music through my earphones... 
But then I realized that it's gonna be okay.
I accept their rule and who knows, maybe I will find that music is so deeply within me, I don't even need it from the outside.

Catch you on the flip side.