7/Summer10: My Trusty Trek

Monday, June 14, 2010

I biked 28 miles Friday...and man was my butt sore! It has been a while since I've riden that distance. I rode the Cape Henry Trail through First Landing State Park and then tooled around VA Beach, which is a HUGE tourist city. Here are some photos of the day:





The sweat lodge


See the Spanish moss?


Through the first part of the trail there were markers with information about the life-and-times of the Chesapeake Indians.


Bog, I think.




Off the trail and heading toward Boardwalk VA Beach, a lovely home


...with an AWESOME hedge of roses around three sides of the house!!


I love Heritage Natural Foods, Cafe and Gifts. They have terrific organic produce.

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6/Summer10: Hey Jude!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Maha: Well......FINALLY some sistah' fun! Yeah, Jude got here to First Landing this morning around 9am and we first enjoyed the morning here at the state park getting to know each other "3-D." Then we decided to go cruising...down to the Boardwalk to do some people watching.


Sand soccer anyone?


Butts galore!


Jude, in the turquoise, is returning from checking out King Neptune.


I'm in the bright orange, wanting to get up-close and personal with the King.


Jude wanted to stay at the Cavalier, but I talked her into hanging out with me in the Dolphin!


C'mon Jude, time to get up!

Jude: No traffic! I got here almost an hour before I thought I would and found Maha's little camper in the woods. What a wonderful time, meeting a soul sister! We started the day with a plate of fresh fruit and then headed out to the beach area. The Mayflower Cafe had the most wonderful Mediterranean Cuisine and a cute waiter who read read our Turkish coffee grounds. In honor of Sparky eating we split a baklava! The search for dry ice was a bust and our dinner was guac with fresh avacados, tomatoes, onion, and salsa and black bean chips with melted cheese, nacho-style.


This little "hole in the wall" was recommended by friends at Yogaville.


Lunch at the Mayflower with tabouli and a Turkish "tapas" plate.


Chopping onions and tomato for the guacamole.


Dinner at "home."

Something was in the air as we walked on the beach later in the day. Dragonflies were everywhere landing on our hands, hopefully feasting on the nasty little biting flies.

Maha: Jude is being modest. Dragonflies landed on HER hands, nasty little biting flies landed on MY hands...and other assorted body parts. Jamie Sams in her Animal Medicine says of the Dragonfly that it will "guide you through the mists of illusion to the pathway of transformation." GO JUDE! In spite of all that the beach walk was wonderful and we waded a little in the warming Atlantic.


This morning the computer was acting up, and I gave it a piece of my mind (that was my first mistake this morning)!

Blessed be!
Maha AND Jude

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5/Summer10: Krishna Das and the Ashram

Friday, June 11, 2010

I spent two weeks at the Satchidananda Ashram in central Virginia. It was glorious in every way. The time there began with a kirtan retreat with Krishna Das, and what a beginning that was! I was either sobbing or singing or laughing, all from joy.


This is Sivananda Hall, where all meals are eaten and many programs take place as well. This is only one of several buildings on the 100's of acres. It is a wonderful environment, which supports the practices.


I'm hanging out in Sivananda Hall, prior to a meal.


Saturday dinner. Krishna Das is in the dark tee shirt. Notice the photos of saints up high on the wall...Paramahansa Yogananda is quite apparent.


Krishna Das gave me a few pointers on harmonium playing and mechanics.


The beginning of a lovely trail to LOTUS (Light of Truth Universal Shrine), a temple to all the world's religions, known and unkown


The LOTUS trail


LOTUS in the distance.


My very old and dear friend, Swami Divyananda, arrived at the ashram while I was there. WHAT A SURPRISE! She was my first introduction to Integral Yoga, while directing the San Francisco Institute when I knocked at the door in 1981.


Swami Divyananda and another wonderful friend, Swami Dayananda.


The entrance to the home of Swami Tyagananda, a noted artist who took sannyas (monk) vows many years ago. What follows are several photos of his amazing varieties of artistic work. All the landschaping is his as well. He is in an orange tee shirt with gray sweats. He's in his late 80's and has several pieces in-process. He always appears for morning, noon, and evening meditation...very consistent in the practice. The library in his house is impressive. He is a prolific reader.








LOTUS and the LOTUS Lake from his second floor balcony.


What a laundry room! There are colorful discs on walls all over the house...all with designs on both sides of the disc.




Satya Greenstone chatting with Swami Tyagananda






Yesterday was my first day at Land's End State Park, Virginia Beach, on Chesapeake Bay. What a sunset


Set up in my lovely camp site, with computer at-hand!

To be continued!

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4/Summer10: I CHOOSE gratitude on the journey!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Friday of Memorial Weekend 2010

I'm deeply inspired by my dear SparkFriend JerseyGirl who, while living a nightmare, CHOOSES to not immerse herself in it. I have so much to be thankful for on this beautiful day. I CHOOSE to be grateful for it ALL, beginning with ~~


the "office" from where I'm writing you! I'm sitting at a picnic table at Lake Reidsville, North Carolina, (north of Greensboro off of US 29N, Business) a city campground off the beaten path that I was "directed" to just as I've been directed to each place I've spent the night since Monday.

Wednesday night I stayed at a lovely site in Murphy, NC just leaving Cherokee National Forest. Tuesday night I camped at Davy Crockett State Park in TN. Monday night I enjoyed the fabulous Village Creek State Park in Wynne, AR. As I said...I was "led" to each place, and each setting was PERFECT for my emotional and spiritual needs of the moment!

I have little time for sitting, because I want to hightail it to the ashram to get myself settled before the program with Krishna Das begins this evening, but here are a few random thoughts and sharings:

As I played some beautiful Hawaiian music on the road and thought about the chanting retreat ahead, thoughts of my dear friend Patti Valentine came to mind. In a way she's responsible for me being here. When I visited her last year on Kauai, she gave me a CD/DVD album of Krishna Das...and the rest, as they say, is history. www.krishnadas.com/tour_schedule.cfm She also gave me the HI music I've been playing on the trip.


Here we are at her little home, all dressed up ready to go see Deepak Chopra, who was on Kauai while I was visiting her!

Someone else who figures large in this adventure is my friend Juan Guererro, who is an expert camper technician and went through all the systems and got me up-and-running for this summer's touring.


Here is young handsome Juan, busy at-work on Kurma, taking a phone break.

I have been getting some exercise, as well as eating healthy. Here are a couple meals I've prepared in my camper and enjoyed this week with all-organic ingredients:


This was a tomato stew, with new potatoes, carrots, braised red onions, wilted arugula, and feta sprinkled on top.


This was a huge salad with baby romaine, kalamata olives, feta, a chopped hard boiled egg, cuke, avocado, plum tomatoes. The dressing was ginger-based with some low fat sour cream!

I LOVE the quote SparkFriend DarkThor shared in a comment he made on my last blog:

"When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. ~Barbara Bloom"

That SO expresses the way I want to feel about my unfolding life. Thank you ALL for your wonderful, life-affirming responses to my blogs. I FEEL your presence with me as I wend my way to parts known and unknown.

Blessed be!
Maha


Hari Kurmavatara, the officially christened name of my little camper (Kurma is the turtle incarnation of Vishnu, for those who know anything of the Hindu pantheon of deities!).

ACT II, Summer 2010 solo road trip, began with the (1) May 11, 2010 blog and ends with (28) on August 14, 2010. Each of ACT II's travel blogs is numbered and includes "Summer10" in the title.

ACT I began with (1) July 29, 2009 and concluded with (7) August 22, 2009, numbered, with "Summer09" in the title...providing a chronicle of sorts for myself and any who are curious!

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3/Summer10: Oh I've been in the woods...

Monday, May 24, 2010

...all right -- a week at the wondrous Devil's Den State Park, NW Arkansas,
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1
#inbox/128c92a050a30f66

...made all the more miraculous because of beginning this odyssey at the feet of my *shero* Mary Oliver, at a reading in Fayetteville, which is near Devil's Den State Park. After the reading, I bought three of her poetry collections -- one for me and two to share with friends -- and stood in line to get her signature on them. Oh yes, I even had a brief exchange with her, nervous as a school girl!

I began my solo road trip in great style: wandering in wonder through the water falls, the sand stone formations, the meadows and lakes, the hug-able trees in full regalia, the "backwater woods" (see below).

I left the park yesterday and I've made a two-hour detour on my trip to Virginia to spend the night at home to retrieve my pillow(!), my passport (in case I want to cross into Canada) AND to go by the computer shop to see if the hard drive problem can be remedied on my laptop. Otherwise I won't have a computer on the trip....

I MISS ALL OF YOU and send BIG BUNCHES of all around.

UPDATE: Harddrive changed under warranty -- YAY! And from that scary 150 lbs. I got up to at the end of the semester, the scale smiled at me this morning with a minus six lbs. after that wondrous week in nature commencing Maha's Magical Mystery Tour!!!

Blessed be!
Maha



IN BLACKWATER WOODS

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

~ Mary Oliver ~
(American Primitive -- the collection for which she won the Pulitzer Prize)

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