A Time to Cocoon
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One of the things I adore about meditation retreats are the forthright conversations one has with strangers. For a stint of a weekend/five days/two weeks a group of strangers are thrown together without any historical baggage or expectations of future interactions. It lends itself to very honest conversations.
Like the one I had at the end of our stint in India for the 10,000 Course for World Peace. We were checking in to the hotel in anticipation for our 4 am departure the next morning back our own beds.
“Are you insane? Why did you bring your kids?” Identical badges hung around our necks.
“Well, I didn’t want to miss it and neither did my husband. It has been an adventure, for sure.”
“Hmmm, I think you must have been nuts.”
Well, that may be true.
Parenting has all sorts of opportunities to stretch the boundaries of familial comfort levels. We knew that bringing our children with us while we both meditated, in India, was going to be an adventure - and it was - memorable on many levels.
Here is a distillation, a series of snapshots, a catalogue of memories from our time in Hyderabad and Kanha Shanti Vanam.
Bean discovering the joys of Nutella for breakfast - on toast, directly spooned, licked off her fingers, reclaimed from her chin, etc.
Having our Uber driver go off route, the driver tell us that we needed to pay for his gas, and me wondering whether we were all about to be kidnapped. Channeling my friend P and yelling at the driver to take us to our destination.
“Dragon, what did you think of India?” “I liked Chibbles that we made friends with. That is what I named the puppy.”
Grooving to “Dance Monkey” on New Years Eve from the hotel rave (6 floors down and through several walls) as I ironed our underwear dry while the children slept.
Our first night in the tent Dragon vomiting in the shower and realizing the ground under the shower sloped away from the drain.
“Bean, how about you, what did you like about India?” “All the beautiful clothing. Sometimes the food. I made a few friends.”
Barely being able to walk or talk from the first full morning of meditation program.
“Momma, why are people touching me all the time? They are pinching my face, patting my head, rubbing my face, sometimes they stand 4 inches away and just smile as we talk. Why is that?”
Getting into the bus to take us to our tent site… Chalo! (Let’s go!). Shukriya (Thank you)
Air pollution that hung like a thick fog every morning till about 10 am.
My corner of S3 with the ladies from Iran, Scotland, Spain, and Hungary as my close neighbors stretched, transcended, laughed, and breathed together.
Giving my children not only their first doses of antibiotics, but also their second doses of antibiotics. Thankfully no one is allergic to penicillin like my mother and sister.
Being schooled by Bean when I asked her whether she thought we should stay in the tent or go back to the world of hotels and commuting - “Mom, you need to get over yourself. Just be flexible. You aren’t as used to camping as the rest of us are.”
Cool in the shade of low palm trees during my program break after lunch we ate pomegranates on the grass and people-watched the participants from 139 countries. (When we were not playing cards or reading books.)
Taking 10 minutes every night to make potable water with our filtering water bottles and refilling water bottles.
And the kicker, the whole reason we did this “insane” thing - inaugurating a global initiative to establish permanent groups of 10,000 to help lower the stress level of the planet.
Please, those billionaires who said you would fund this, please do follow through on your promises. Please use a fraction of your egregious wealth and do this for our planet. Please please, our world needs to calm down. Our world needs peace. My children’s world needs peace. My grandchildren’s world needs peace.
It is clear the experience is rippling through me still. As I plug myself back into the practicalities of our life I am struck by how sharp some of the edges of the socket feel. I am in a different shape than when I left.
A different shape forged from blunt conversations and incredibly deep meditations.
My imaginal cells have been activated.
It is time to cocoon and integrate.
