Beauty and magic continue to unfold and blossom all around me. Never has a day gone by without intense and sincere gratitude pouring out from my being. The smiles of the neighborhood children are becoming familiar, bright as the sun, reminders of the essential purity of life on this earth. It took an extra hour to walk home yesterday evening as I kept pausing to marvel at the purple/pink, perfectly round flaming ball of light as it dipped below the distant hills. Its light reflected softly on the flourescent colors of the simple stone houses as well as their tanned and quiet tenants.
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Although I have been here for one month, today was the first time I entered the main temple in the center of the city. Nataraj and I slowly and quietly marveled at the intricate stone carvings on the temple walls and mentioned the names and stories associated with the forms. We sat with the resident elephant and I felt a bit of sadness as I watched the magnificent creature perform its menial task of collecting a few rupees from those wishing to be blessed by the touch of his trunk on the tip of their head. Some children screamed in delight and fear, some babies cried, and some giggled with adrenaline. There were tears coming out of the elephant's eyes, but I will not anthropomorphize that into sadness. His eyes were probably just dry and I was looking for a connection with this majestic being.
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I am almost done mastering a cd and hope to have it done by Saturday because I have scheduled a show at a cafe. Songs are coming easily to me here and there is a marked change in the subject matter of the compositions. Before, many of my songs were personal stories that may have helped me to detach from their significance in my life. Although there was a universality within the personal story telling of this style, the songs are now more intentionally universal. It is a joy to feel the inspiration to write songs that are not about 'me' or the me I have envisioned myself to be. This change in the expression of songwriting is quite liberating and I feel that the music will benefit with this change. Surely there are still a few personal love stories to come, but I feel there is significant evolution in the expression still.
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There is endless and infinite beauty to speak of - every moment is a passing spot of grace. It is becoming more persistantly clear to me exactly how blessed existence on this earth is. The true nature of all beings is what makes this blossoming awareness consistent. Our nature is joy and bliss. This is where we are from and this is where we go - if we do, in fact, go anywhere at all! It is a wonder that our minds can take us so far from this truth.
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May all the beings live in peace! Om shanti, shanti, shanti
~Maggie
