Life makes me ponder.

(Replayed from October 2011)

Recently a guest came for a four day stay at Spirit Fire. He was gentle, kind, joyous, and helpful. I hope he comes back. He’s from another culture: from a country where water is precious, often hard to come by, and never wasted. Some days he “smelled” though he washed or showered regularly. He was quite comfortable with himself and everyone else. We enjoyed him immensely.

His body odor made me wonder about cultural norms, and why we*, as a nation, are squeaky clean on the outside yet corruption, abuse, misuse, and foulness are part of our cultural norm. Why are he and his countrymen healthy and Americans are so diseased? He has all his possessions in a sack and is happy, and we with closets, garages, barns, and storage pods of stuff are often unhappy or disquieted. He seems to abide in contentment even though his nation is dispossessed. Why is our nation so discontented as evidenced in verbal and physical violence, alcoholism, drug use, depression, anxiety, and fear?

I reflected on what I’ve been told by friends who have traveled to India, Central America, or Africa where water is precious, possessions few, where people depend upon one another and on the natural goodness of the human spirit. In these places there is no anti-bacterial hand soap also no colds. There is one clean pot used for all meals; no leftovers, no fridge, no food thrown in the kitchen trash, no kitchen. There might not be a pillow or a bed, yet people’s backs are straight and don’t hurt from sleeping. I found myself pondering so many things. His visit was a blessing.

How about you, do you ponder such things? If you have traveled, what have you observed? I’m not thinking of “don’t drink the water” or “don’t eat anything raw” type of statements But instead, what have you witnessed? Give me and us all something to ponder. Write a comment.

* of the USA

2 Responses to Life makes me ponder.

Indrajit Rathore – Jaipur, Rajasthan, India – I am a retired Indian diplomat living in the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan, India. I am interested in spirituality, mysticism, theology, art, museum development and archeological sites. I have published a book of poems - Primal Colour and Introspections on the Gita which was launched last year at the Jaipur Literature festival. I am also deeply interested in observing nature and animal behaviour. Related to my interest in spirituality is my obsession in reading about New Age thought which seeks to align spirituality and mysticism with science to show that they are indeed two sides of the same coin. My writings and poems support this view that as science progresses it appears to get more and more mystical in its findings, particularly at the sub atomic levels - The findings of Quantum Physics for instance are not very different from the findings of mystical seers and thinkers of yore about the nature of reality- a revolution in thought bringing to gether science and spirit appears to have gathered momentum in the 20th and now the 21st centuries. Most of my life I have been intrigued by the concept of the Soul. Every faith speaks of it, many scholars have written about it, both in the past and in what is called New Age literature. In common parlance too we refer to Soul so often. Yet it is the most ambiguous of concepts to truly comprehend. My curiosity led me to research what the different scriptures say about it – all refer to it. Later I sought to understand its metaphysical significance and reality and even experience its presence mystically through meditation, poetry, music and literature. My primary blog entitled SEARCH FOR THE SOUL therefore tries to share whatever I have gleaned from diverse sources on the subject and to invite feed back which could help to enlighten me further on the subject. My second blog however presents only my poems on mystical insights and experiences, nature and animal behavior, human relationships, heritage and culture, peoples lands and travel, faith, the cosmos, God and revered Hindu deities and introspection. I regard my poems as thought forms having an organic reality of their own. they arise from a lifetime of mystical introspection, the experience of living or my interface with nature and find expression through the rhythms of the mind. At times, it is the rhythm that initiates the grasping of a thought. At others, it is the thought, grown pregnant, that arouses a rhythm and sometimes they come together. I hope they will strike a sympathetic chord in the reader and recreate in his mind the same complex experience which spurred their creation.

Indrajit Rathore says:

August 11, 2013 at 6:40 am

thanks for a inspiring post – India is a land of contrasts with abject poverty and the extremely rich and a growing prosperous middle class that is becomming more and more like the West ( not an undesirable thing in essentials ) – well what struck me was that street urchins at road lights begging the passers by in cars had the brightest and most smiling faces i have ever seen anywhere – for the rest the looks of the well to do were all grumpy or full of concern – i wonder what brings those wonderful smiles to the faces of the poor beggars who have absolutely nothing.

- Donna Mitchell-Moniak – Visit www.blazinglight.net for additional meditations and blog posts.
  
  Donna Mitchell-Moniak says:
  
  August 12, 2013 at 8:09 am
  
  Well said. I can see their smiles in my mind from your words.