Author: Karuna Poole

I am recently retired psychotherapist who now spends much of my time working as a forest and habitat restoration volunteer. For decades, I have focused much of my attention on watching for and learning the lessons life sends my way. I share my stories and reflections, both past and present, in my blog Living, Learning and Letting Go.

Sanskrit Writing Practice: Post #3

It has been 58 days since I started writing one of the 108 Names of Amma in ten times in Devanagari (the script used to write Sanskrit words) each day. Many of the “names” are events in Amma‘s early life. The list was compiled decades ago and is frequently used as a chant before meditation or singing.

In my last Sanskrit post, the lines related to Amma having had a vision of Lord Krishna. In this post I am using three lines that follow the one about Amma having had a vision of the Divine Mother holding an instrument called the veena. So these three lines are about what happened once her vision disappeared.

Day 48

देवी सद्य: तिरोधान ताप व्यथित चेतसे नम :
devi sadyas tirodhana tapa vyathita chetase namah
…whose heart was burnt in the fire of sorrow on the Divine Mother’s sudden disappearance,

Day 50

त्यक्तान्न पान निद्रदी निद्रादि सर्व दैहिक धर्मणे नम:
tyaktanna pana nidradi sarva daihika dharmane namah
… who gave up all bodily activities like eating, drinking, sleeping, etc.

Note: In doing this post, I see that I didn’t write pana in any of my sentences. Whoops.

Day 51

कुररादि समानीत भक्ष्य पोषित वर्ष्मणे नम:
kuraradi samanita bhakshya poshita varshmane namah
whose body was nourished by the food brought by birds and other animals

Note: I only wanted to use three lines in this post. Day 49 was “… whose sorrowful wailing was rending the ears of the four quarters.”

Gigantic Rhubarb

A few days ago a neighbor asked if I wanted some rhubarb from her garden. I enthusiastically said “Yes”!

She put the rhubarb on my porch and let me know it was there. I was astounded by how big the leaves were.

I put a nickel on one of the leaves to give you a better sense of its size.

I wonder if the leaves are this big because the air quality in the city is so much better since there is decreased traffic due to the stay at home orders. Everything in nature seems more healthy and more beautiful this year.

Crying Again!

When I woke up this morning, I had two What’s App notices on my phone. The first was an American Idol audition from three months ago. My heart was touched both by the performers innocence and talent, and by the way the judges treated him. My eyes filled with tears as I watched the video.

The second one was from last night’s America’s Got Talent show. By the end of that video, tears were pouring from my eyes.

As I was writing this post, another performance from last night caught my eye. It touched my heart for a completely different reason so I decided to include it too.

I’m Not a Cook!

I’m not a cook, so this stay at home order is a real challenge. And when I do cook, I create a big mess. I made some zucchini-banana bread last week and it turned out well. (The two cupcakes are missing because I ate them while they were still hot!)

This is what my kitchen looked like when I finished making the bread! 😒 ❤️😧

Touched My Heart

Earlier this week, a friend sent me this video. I was VERY touched by it and sent it on to family and friends. Days later, I’m still thinking and talking about it so I’ve decided to share it on my blog. I will let the video speak for itself.

The Absence of Plastic

Towards the end of January in 2017, I cleaned out the three birdhouses in my back yard. They all had nests inside but I noticed that none of them had been used; one was barely begun and another I judged to be abnormal.

the 3 bird nests

The one I considered abnormal had practically filled the whole bird house. The top of it was flat and solid, there was no place for a mother bird to lay or sit on her eggs. Like the others, that birdhouse was made of many natural materials, but it also included many small pieces of plastic.

I ended up taking that bird nest apart. I soon discovered it contained a tremendous amount of plastic. Below you will see a photo of the plastic that I found in that one nest.

I wondered if the bird’s brain had been poisoned by the plastic and if that was why the top was flat. My heart ached when I thought about the many ways humans contaminate nature.

This experience occurred soon after we started working on restoring the Greenbelt property that is adjacent to my house. The land at that time was full of trash, big and small, and there were a lot of small plastic pieces in and on top of the ground.

It was near nesting season, so we decided to invite the Bala Kendra group from our Amma satsang to do a Greenbelt litter pickup work party. It was amazing to see how much trash the children gathered in an hour’s time.

In the years since then, numerous truckloads of garbage have been removed from the property.

This year, when I cleaned out the bird houses in preparation for nesting season, I found that two of the houses were practically empty. Only one contained a complete nest. It didn’t look like it had been used, but at least it had been built normally; there was a cup indentation on top, a place for the mother bird to lay her eggs.

I didn’t take apart the nest this time but the absence of plastic was very noticeable. I only saw one small piece on the outside of the nest and another small piece at the bottom of the cup.

***

You can read the full story about my 2017 experience in a three part series. It includes many more photos, some of them microscopic. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Beauty During the Pandemic

I have essentially remained in my house since the stay at home order went into effect; but I have gone to the grocery store occasionally and have also walked up and down my street or around the block from time to time.

Yesterday, I took photos of some of the plants I’ve been seeing on those short ventures.

Click on any of the photos below to enlarge them.

FOTD

Stay at Home Photos

Like most of us, I imagine, I’m spending most days in my house. While over the years, I have developed the habit of leaving the blinds on the front window down since they help keep the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer, now that I’m indoors so much, I often find myself pulling the blinds up during daytime hours.  

Still my eyes may not see what’s in front of my face. One morning in May, I gazed towards the front window and really “saw” the view. I had known this rhododendron shrub had buds, but I hadn’t noticed it had come into full bloom. The sight was stunning. 

FOTD