Sunday, June 28, 2009

2009 06 28. Sunday.

2009 06 28. Sunday.

At 5:10 am I got up to use the bathroom and went back into bed, looking forward to another hour of sleep. However, I was feeling pretty awake. After a few minutes of indecision, and with a lot of effort, I dragged myself out of bed and went to the usual Mahay Shasura Mardini bhajan. Felt good. I did my usual IAM practice afterwards and felt good the whole day. Thought I would be sleepy in the afternoon, but my energy was good.

At breakfast this morning there was an urn of chai already set out when I got there. I set my intention not to get any chai until I had finished all my breakfast and washed my plate. In the middle of my breakfast Peter came by and said "Did you see the chai? You should get some before its gone!" I pretended to be surprised, looked at the chai urn and said "Really? Wow. I'll get some soon." He walked away and I continued my breakfast, trying to memorize the Hanuman Chalisa bhajan and getting frequently interrupted by thoughts wondering if the chai was all gone yet. When I finally went to get some, the chai came out in a strong stream. Wow. There was still a lot in the urn. Surprising after it had sat out for so long. The Indians are even more crazy for their chai than me.

One of the senior western devotees on tour with Amma talked with Amma about how to manage the compost project after Peter leaves. Peter Ash is leaving in a few days to go back to his home near San Diego. Peter runs some organic farms and puts on organic farming and composting workshops and classes. Amma said She would like two Western men to manage the project after Peter leaves. So I put forward my name to be one of the project managers since I've learned a lot with my many long talks with Peter.

After the composting work today I went back to my building and was sitting outside wiping the sand off my feet and slapping the sand off my sandals. A man I hadn't seen before approached me out of the blue and started asking me questions about the ashram and seva and other things. Turns out this is his first time here and he decided to chat with me. He seemed kind of overwhelmed with the ashram and I tried to reassure him that he would get used to things pretty easily. I gave him some info and we were chatting. He's from France and is about 40 years old. As we were chatting this rather eccentric French lady who lives at the ashram butted into the conversation and took over talking with him. I was happy for that and took the opportunity to sneak off and get a much needed shower.

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