do play with your food

10/01/2017

When I was a child, my mother would say “Don’t play with your food!” if she noticed me pushing food around on my plate. In England, one’s behaviour at the dinner table is expected to be reserved and rather formal, it would seem.

Here in India, things are different. It is normal to eat food not with cutlery but with the hands, the right hand to be more precise. And naturally, this process involves pushing food around, mixing vegetables with rice. The way the food is handled on the plate is reminiscent of an artist mixing colours on a palette. It is a gloriously messy affair.

In England, people see and smell and taste the food when eating. In India, people also feel the food. This physical contact adds another dimension to the sensory experience. We are feeling the texture of the food, its moistness and its warmth in our fingertips.

The best thing about eating with one’s hand, though, is that it encourages us to play with our food. And I have to say, Mum, that playing with the food of life makes for a very enjoyable day!

first sip of a morning

08/01/2017

In stark contrast to yesterday’s grumpy day, this morning I awoke in fine spirits. This was particularly evident as I took my first sip of chai for the day. It really hit the spot.

There is something about that first sip of tea of a morning. It is as if I am tasting the new day itself. In that moment, there is only the taste, magically melding with the soft morning light and enchanting my not-yet-busy-with-thoughts mind. For a moment at least, I am tasting life. And in that, there is an immense, serene joy.

grumpy day

07/01/2017

Here in Tiruvannamalai, many of us – myself included – tend to float around in a blissful state.

Today was different. I have been grumpy all day long.

And what I have finally realised is that, once in a while, I really enjoy being grumpy!

troubled souls

26/12/2016

Sitting drinking chai this morning, I looked around and felt a troubled soul nearby. It is the greatest tragedy: that so many of us human beings are going through life with a troubled soul.

There is this amazing, wonderful, miracle that is existence. It is so rich, so diverse, so abundant. And each of us is a part of this mystery; a part of life.

Resonating fully with a tiny leaf bud at the tip of a twig at the end of a branch of a tree; watching it sway gently in the breeze, the heart swaying with it; there is nothing except a deep relaxation-gratitude-joy-letting-go-ah-yes, a feeling that all is as it should be.

And yet, it still feels strange and saddening that there are so many troubled souls forming part of all that is.

raw emotion

17/12/2016

I am in Munnar, in the Western Ghats of southern India, and I have just come from the covered fruit and vegetable market. Twelve years ago, on my first trip to India, I took this photo in that market. Today, as I walked amongst the fruit and veg, I remembered the photo. I remembered the exact spot where I took the picture; I remembered the soft light; I remembered the feeling of the moment.

Wandering around the market today, my whole being was filled with a raw emotional energy. It wasn’t a particular emotion: neither sadness nor happiness; not anger, nor elation. It felt like pure emotional energy, centred deep in the belly.

I often notice this feeling when I am in a place that feels timeless, where not much has changed in hundreds of years. And today that timeless feeling was enhanced by my own memory of the place, for not much had changed in the intervening years. The soft light was the same, the atmosphere in the market was the same; only this time, the light was falling on a row of bananas in that particular spot.

three surfers

15/12/2016

Earlier today I sat drinking chai and watched three surfers at play. Each of the three had his own strategic approach to the surfing.

The first, who seemed most accomplished on the board, simply caught every wave which came his way, big or small. He was totally non-selective, enjoying whatever the ocean offered up. Of course, he missed some of the best waves, through being out of position at the critical moment. He certainly got to ride a lot of waves though.

Another of the three took the opposite approach. He was waiting for the big one. In the whole hour that I watched, I only saw him attempt to surf two waves. They were both monster waves and his tactic might have paid off. However, my feeling was that his approach meant that he was not actually that well practised. The first of the two waves he failed to catch at all and the second he only managed to surf for a few seconds before being toppled.

The third man adopted a middle way. He ignored the smaller waves, waiting for something bigger. However, he didn’t take it to the extreme of waiting for the big one. Any reasonably sized wave saw him up on his board having a good surf.

Watching the surfers, I realised that we are all adopting one of these strategies with the opportunities that life offers us. Do we wait for the perfect relationship? Or engage with every possible partner who appears before us? Do we take any work opportunity at the risk of missing out on something better? Or do we sit around waiting for the ideal job to manifest? Or do we take a middle way, accepting reasonably good offerings without insisting on perfection, whilst also upholding some standards?

Whichever strategy we choose, it is always a gamble!

surrender

13/12/2016

I’ve just come from the waves. Here at Kovalam, in Kerala, India, the waves roll into the beach and break with tremendous force. I like to play in them, dive under them, jump into them, or best of all, abandon myself to them completely. Surrendering to a wave in this way is exhilarating of course. I feel that the wave is taking me. I am completely at its mercy. For a short while, I am not in control at all.

This surrender to the waves is reminiscent of the surrender on the spiritual journey. At some point, we must simply abandon ourself to life. We are completely at the mercy of existence, or God if you prefer. We are no longer feeling ourself to be in control.

Having survived the waves, the remarkable thing is that my whole being feels refreshed, revitalised. In that surrender, it feels like I have let go of all tension in my body and in my mind. And so it is with spiritual surrender, too…