With love from India

I am continuing to take extremely good care of myself with daily yoga asanas and healthy Ayurvedic meals and I can’t remember the last time I felt so strong and radiant! The furrowed brow I developed in Washington is completely erased and I am frequently in awe when I reflect on my good fortune.

A friend of mine shared a remarkably relevant passage about joy and sorrow from The Prophet; Joy and sorrow are two sides of one coin. The deeper the sorrow one has experienced, the deeper the capacity for joy. The depth of despair I experienced in Washington has made it possible for me to radiate joy now. You can recognize a person who has suffered greatly by the depth of their laugh. Joy and sorrow go hand in hand.

The days seem to fly by inexplicably.

There are people from all over the world here and I have found friendships in the most unexpected places. Yesterday I said goodbye to a Danish boy who became something of a younger brother to me. The first thing he told me when I met him was “I don’t believe in any of that spiritual crap.” We became fast friends and I was surprised by my sadness when he left, on foot, planning to hitch hike to the desert.

Today I had an exam with Dr. Vishnu, who commented that I am looking much healthier since my arrival three weeks ago. He has “diagnosed” me with severe imbalance of my doshas and I begin a one-week treatment tomorrow morning.

The ashram where I stay is filled with crazies, most of them lovable. It is completely normal to hear people talking about drinking their own urine (urine therapy), vomiting up salt water and bile (to see what you had left in your stomach from the previous day), or drinking copious amounts of salt water and spending hours on the toilet. While I haven’t ventured into any of these particular “cleansing” practices, Dr. Vishnu assures me that my first enemas will be sometime this week.

Rishikesh is filling up with Indian tourists for the summer season, and apparently I am one of the sights to see. Gawking Indian teenagers are everywhere and always asking for a photo. I must be in at least 10 photos by now. Bad monkeys abound; one of them stole a banana right from my hand yesterday! Had my left hand “tattooed” with henna a while back and tried fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice with mint (5 rupees) as well as a raft ride down the Ganga. Every day is hotter and hotter now and flies and mosquitoes are ubiquitous.

I can’t write any more as I’m just not in the right head space for writing. Hugs and kisses to all,

With love,

LMA