This past June, I was very disturbed by the lack of honey bees in my garden (We Need the Bees). While bumblebees were present throughout the summer, and at least some honey bees from mid July on, I don’t think I ever saw a bee of any kind in the bee balm, a plant known for attracting bees. While I grieve that the world’s bee population has decreased so significantly, and hope we can do what it takes to bring them back, my heart lifted when I saw this visitor in the bee balm one day. This bird, or others like it, returned almost every day. While the hummingbird is gone now, I have not forgotten it, and look forward to the possibility of its return next summer! At that time, I hope I am also blessed with the sight of seeing honey bees drinking nectar from the bee balm.
As many of you know, I stay quite busy in Seattle, but my Seattle life looks like a life of leisure when compared to my time in Amritapuri! In this post, I will not only describe what my day is like, I will also practice my Sanskrit. So if some of my sentences seem strangely simplistic that is why!
At 4:00 a.m., I get up (चतुर्वादने प्रातःकले उत्तिष्ठामि|)
At 4:45, I go to the temple (पदोन-पञ्चवादने देवालयं गच्छामः|)
By 9:00 this morning, I had already been given the opportunity to witness one of my less virtuous sides. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, one of the sevas (volunteer work) I do at Amma’s ashram in Amritapuri, India is to work in the vermicomposting center, separating the worms from the compost they make. The harvested worms are sent back to make more compost and the finished compost is bagged and stored for use in the gardens. This is the third year I am doing this seva.
Last year, there was a woman in the center who was working so fast. It seemed to me like she was taking handful after handful of the compost and making no effort to separate out the worms. She had way more experience than I did and worked many hours a day, but my judgment was that she was being careless and not taking her job seriously. “I”, on the other hand, was being meticulous, going carefully over every handful of compost looking for even the smallest of worms. “I” knew what I was doing and “I” was doing it way better than she was.
Fast forward to this year. Yesterday, while I was harvesting the worms, another woman joined me. This year there is a different set up in that the material we are to separate has been formed into mounds that are about 16 inches high. The woman sat down in front of a mound and started picking up handful after handful of the compost and placing it in the bucket which contained the finished compost. She didn’t even seem to be looking for worms, and I rarely saw her put a worm in the worm bucket. Then she started lightly brushing the sides of the mound with her hand. She would pick up the material she had brushed off and placed it in the compost bucket. Again, I was full of judgment. She was being so careless, while “I” was working slowly and methodically, making sure that “I” didn’t miss a single worm. I left soon after that so did not see how she completed the process.
I should mention that my way of harvesting the worms is very different. I know that worms gather at the bottom so I take the mound apart and go directly to the bottom. I am then able to quickly gather large numbers of worms and place them in my worm bucket. That process is very satisfying because I see the fruit of my action right away. Next, I examine every bit of the remaining compost to make sure I haven’t missed any worms.
I thought about that scenario during the day and began to wonder if there was something that I was missing. Was it possible that the two women knew something that I didn’t know? That would make sense since they were the ones who did this work day in and day out. This morning I decided to try it their way.
Once I looked at the mound with fresh perspective, I had a sense of what was happening. The outer part of the mound is drier and, in addition, is exposed to light. Worms want to be where it is damp and dark, so if the compost is dry or there is light, they would burrow deeper into the mound. And the act of someone brushing off the outside layer of the mound would certainly result in the worms quickly moving deeper inside.
Today, when I picked up the compost around the base of my mound, I discovered it didn’t contain a single worm. That was also true when I brushed the outside of my mound; none of the material that I brushed off had worms in it. It was not until I was much deeper into the mound that I found more than the occasional worm. Once I reached the center areas, I joyously harvested big clumps of worms!
Worm composting
It had taken me a full hour to separate the worms from one mound of compost when I did it “my” way. Using their techniques, I finished sorting two mounds in about 40 minutes! Clearly, these two women knew how to efficiently separate the worms and the compost and I did not. I not only had learned a new way to harvest the worms, but I had also received an opportunity to examine my arrogance! And it is still early morning. I wonder what the rest of this day will hold?
I made it to India! I have been coming to Amma’s ashram in Amritapuri, India almost yearly since 1990. Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi) is an internationally known humanitarian and spiritual leader. Her network of humanitarian projects is vast; including hospitals, colleges, schools, vocational training programs, disaster relief, orphanages, environmental programs and much more. Amma’s form of blessing (called darshan) is a hug. To date she has hugged more than 33 million people worldwide. Even though Amma was born in a Hindu culture, when people ask her what her religion is, she responds, “My religion is love.” You can find out more about Amma and the humanitarian projects at Embracing the World.
Being with Amma (which means mother) is like coming home for me. When I am with her, I feel seen, known, and cared for, to the core of my being. My time with her is filled with lessons and life experiences. The lessons can be intense at times, but growth is always the outcome. During the next six weeks, I will be sharing experiences I have during my 2014-2015 visit.
One of the things I am passionate about is learning Sanskrit. There is a meditative verse that is often sung at Sanskrit events. In this song, students pledge dedication to their Sanskrit studies. I am going to begin this post by singing that verse. Please forgive any mispronunciation; some Sanskrit letters are still difficult for me to say correctly.
शुक्रवासरे अष्टाविंशत्-दिनांके -November-मासे भारतं गमिष्यामि
On Friday November 28, I will go to India.
Many years ago, I heard a minister say that the voice of God is most often the first voice we hear inside. What usually follows is a flood of discounting messages telling us why God’s message will not work, “You can’t do that,” “That’s wrong,” “It will never work,” “Do this instead.” He said that the quiet voice of God may make another attempt or two, but if we continue to ignore it, the “voice” will eventually fade.
People have many ways of conceptualizing this voice. For some it is God. Others call it intuition, inner voice, higher self, Spirit, or The Divine. In this post I will refer to it as inner voice.
I have experienced that process many times in my life, but never as frequently as during a week in 1995. It began when I was attending one of Amma’s programs in Calicut, India. At that time, I was staying with other ashramites, i.e. devotees from Amma’s main ashram in Amritapuri, on the roof of her Calicut temple.
There were places on the roof where mounds of rough concrete rose two to three inches above the surface. Several times, when I passed a particular mound, my inner voice said, “Be careful, that concrete is dangerous.” My response was, “I see it. I AM being careful.” I would then continue blithely on my way. One day, as I was walking to my sleeping mat, not paying a bit of conscious attention to what I was doing, I tripped over that mound of concrete and tore a big piece of flesh from the top of my toe.
The injury was very painful but that was the least of my concerns. Having an open foot wound in India seemed very dangerous to me. In those days, I generally walked barefoot and I had no doubt that the ground was filled with untold numbers and varieties of bacteria. My nursing background told me that the extreme heat and high humidity created a perfect breeding ground for the bacteria. I cleaned the wound as best I could and went on with my life. I found I needed to stay very conscious of my surroundings because any time I would lose concentration I would hit my toe on something, sending waves of pain coursing through my body.
I apparently hadn’t learned what I was meant to learn though. Over and over that week, my inner voice “warned” me of potential problems and I repeatedly discounted those warnings. The second instance occurred when my daughter Chaitanya, a friend and I took a taxi to the Singapore Airlines office in downtown Calicut. We drove in circles for an hour, unable to find the office. Once there, we discovered we needed to go to the Indian Air office before we could make the necessary changes with Singapore Airlines. As we left the Singapore Airlines office my inner voice said, “Make sure you write down the address so you can get back here.” I responded, “That is not necessary, the next taxi driver will know the way.” Later, when we left the Indian Air office, we spent another frustrating hour searching for the Singapore Airlines office.
Soon thereafter, I needed to relay an important message to a person at Amma’s Amritapuri ashram. I arranged to send it with a friend who was returning to the ashram sooner than the rest of us. The night before my friend’s departure, my inner voice said, “Write the note and give it to her NOW.” I answered, “No, that is not necessary. She will not be leaving until tomorrow afternoon.” When I awakened the next morning, I discovered my friend had abruptly changed her plans, taking off for the ashram at daybreak.
As we cleaned our living area, the morning after the program’s end, I noticed a piece of paper on the floor beside my sleeping mat. My inner voice said, “That looks like a train ticket.” I answered, “MY ticket is in my wallet.” When we arrived at the train station a few hours later, I discovered that our tickets were missing.
My series of misfortunes did not end there. Chaitanya was scheduled to leave India two days after our return from Calicut. A friend cautioned me to pack her most important items in her carry-on luggage. I inwardly responded, “Everything is already packed and I do not want to start over. That is unnecessary.” After driving the three hours from the ashram to the airport, we discovered we had left my daughter’s suitcase sitting in our room at the ashram. That suitcase contained everything she needed for the school report that was due upon her return to the United States. There was no way to retrieve the suitcase before her plane departed. When I reflected on that event, I remembered that God’s messages may also be relayed through another person, such as in this incident with the suitcase.
As I began to ponder my behavior, I realized that after years of being so intensely focused on my spiritual path, I had developed a rather cocky attitude about my ability to hear and respond to that inner voice. I was shocked to see the reality of the situation. Over and over again, I had been warned of an impending problem and had discounted, ignored, and contradicted the warnings. I was awed by how much pain I could have saved myself if I had listened to each instruction. I was thankful for the powerful display of this particular spiritual pitfall and vowed to be much more conscious and conscientious in the future.
I believe that I am much more likely to pay attention to that quiet voice now than I did back then, but I still find myself discounting or ignoring warnings. This will probably be one of those lessons that will last a lifetime.
What experiences have you had in ignoring your inner voice?
For some time, I have realized that I spend so much time working on my laptop that it would be better for my back and my health in general if I had a standing computer desk. That way I could stand up when I use the laptop. I looked on the internet for one but it didn’t take long to determine that they cost more than I was willing to pay, i.e. $100-200.
I decided to create my own standing desk by putting three small tables on top of each other with a piece of plywood in-between each section. I used it for most of the year, but eventually tired of having something so unsightly in my living room.
Two months ago, I was at a friend’s house and saw his standing computer desk. My eyes lit up. It was exactly what I had been looking for, and he had purchased it for only $36! I soon discovered that the price had gone up since he bought his, but I was still able to buy one for $46 plus tax. (In obtaining the link for this post, I noticed that the price has increased again.) Now, while I work, I can stand when I want to stand and sit when I want to sit. I love it!
Purchasing the computer desk was an accomplishment, but it wasn’t the biggest one. For as long as I can remember, my dining room table has been covered with clutter. There is the mail, Sanskrit homework, info for the monthly newsletter I write, bills, the laptop, items I need to write posts, and a whole lot more. I generally push things to the side when I need space to eat, or since I live alone, I just eat elsewhere. The rest of the house isn’t a mess but the dining room table sure has been.
Having the computer desk has made all the difference in the world. After I put the desk together, I cleaned the dining room table and it has stayed completely free of clutter ever since. If I put items on it during the day, then I remove them shortly thereafter.
With all the clutter removed, I can see how scarred the table is, but that is a job for another day. For now I’m going to celebrate the accomplishment of having a clean table and a clean dining room!
On January 24, 2014 there were 9294 homeless people men, women and children in Seattle/King County.
3132 slept on the streets
2906 were in shelters
3265 were in transitional housing
How can so many be homeless in this city/county? The following facts certainly give some big hints:
As of October, 2014, average apartment rent within 10 miles of Seattle, WA was $1694/month. One bedroom apartments rent for $1402/month on average and two bedroom apartments rent for an average of $1945/month.
I couldn’t find the average cost for renting a house but I saw listings that ranged from $1450 to $6700/month.
Unemployment is 5%. That does not include the underemployed or people have given up looking for work.
Minimum wage is $9.32 an hour. Working full-time, a person would earn $372.8/week or $1491.20/month.
The lack of affordable housing in the city makes it extremely difficult to move people out of homelessness rapidly and the longer people are homeless the more difficult it is to house them.
The citizens of Seattle have to pass a housing levy to fund homeless services. The levy lasts seven years before it needs to be renewed. While this is a potential problem, the levy has been renewed four times during good times and bad. This is a testament to the city’s commitment to the homeless.
There are City of Seattle and King County programs which help the homeless find shelter and food. Many churches and missions also devote a great deal of time and resources to this endeavor. In addition, numerous churches are now allowing homeless people who own cars to park in their parking lots at night.
While I could present a lot more information about the shelters and the feeding programs, I’m going to limit most of my focus to the tent cities. (Know that these communities are set up in a way that allows their residents to have some degree of privacy, so I took most of my pictures from a distance.)
The Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and Women’s Housing Equality and Enhancement League (SHARE/WHEEL) set up the first tent cities in 1990. Over time the first two disbanded but Tent City #3 and #4 are still active. The early tent cities had to move every 3 weeks to 3 months. Now they are allowed to stay in one place for six months, and an additional six month extension is sometimes possible.
Tent City #3 is currently located near the freeway entrance at NE 64 Street and 8th Avenue NE. They are able to shelter up to 100 residents.
Tent City #4 is now hosted by the Redmond Family Church in Redmond, Washington. It serves 80-100 people.
In 2008, a group of homeless people set up a group of pink tents that had been donated by the Girl Scouts. Mayor Greg Nickles had them evicted three days later; twenty people were arrested in the process. In protest, the camp was named Nicklesville! The group has moved 20 times over the years. After disbanding for a year, they were recently given a new Seattle location at 1010 S. Dearborn. Approximately 80 people are living there now.
In addition to the tent cities, there are individual tents scattered throughout the city. It is not unusual to see them on a street, under a freeway, or in the forested areas of the city. I was recently told that a group of homeless men and women had set up a camp on the sidewalk of the park that borders the King County Courthouse. When I checked it out I noticed people were also sleeping on the sidewalk.
May the day come when everyone in the world has both adequate food and shelter.
Today, let’s focus on a street. It can be a quiet road in a small town, an alley near your apartment, or a busy street where pedestrians weave between cars and motorbikes….In your shot, think about its basic components: a foreground and a background. The foreground is the part of you that’s nearest to the viewer, and where you can place a subject or focal point of your picture.
I took this photo in a way the viewer might think that my focus was the texture of the road in the foreground.
The Weekly Photo Challenge is:
This week, show us your interpretation of descent — experiment with your point of view and angle, or go even deeper with the theme.
I think the picture above captures the concept of descent well!
*****
Completing these assignments reminded me of an incident that happened decades ago. When it snows in Seattle it is nearly impossible for me to drive to or from my house. This photo shows the road going west from my house. There are 8-10 more blocks of steep incline beyond what you see here; so driving uphill when there is snow on the ground is not an option.
One year, I thought the one block decline going east was potentially doable so I decided to try it.
I took a deep breath and turned the corner onto McClellan St. When I looked into my rear view mirror, a moment or two later, I saw a station wagon sliding down the hill sideways. Somehow, I avoided a collision, but that was the end of my driving when it is snowing in Seattle! If I need to go somewhere I walk, take the bus or go by light rail!
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”-William Shakespeare
Living, Learning and Letting Go 
