India- December 6, 2008- up to the mountains....In Darjeeling!!

Namaste me amigos!!!

whats goin on?? how are you all doing in your different lands?? i hope really good...life continues...with good changes if you wish..... i know very well that it is not always easy at all...but my mom once wrote to me that it is inevitable that changes occur, it is up to you whether they are plus or minus..... i figure life inevitably contues to flow....and we must flow like water with it....flow our way around those obstacles, and have faith that we will just continue to flow as well....

so, we are now in darjeeling, up in the mountains, far away from terrorists (im just tossing that one in for all of you wonderfully concerned friends.....), not that im too concerned, i mean, i do not want to die clearly, but im not necessarily going to go right into the middle of it....so, alas, i am here, in beautiful chilly mountains in Darjeeling, the 'Queen of the HIlls' another land of the Diva....mother earth, i tell you! I t took a couple days to get here from varanasi, a long and packed and scrunchy train ride, and an AMAZING 'toy-train' ride up to the top, through mountains and flowers and treees of every kind, i saw roses and orchids and hibiscus flowers and mums, and bjillions of these yellow mini-sunflowers, and greenery ranging from tea plantations to pine trees to bamboo to palm trees.....heaps and heaps of happy playful butterflies, baby little waterfalls and springs, and so many waving smiling rosy cheeked children.....i had no idea the different looking people here, i mean, i guess i should of suspected...we're so close to nepal, but honestly, its so bizarre for me, i am seeing nepali and like chinese looking people wearing saris and bhindis....its so crazy, the ethnic backgrounds of people here is so lovely for my eyes..... i love seeing different colours and features of human being from around the world, and darjeeling has such a range, its awesome!

i have also been wearing some serious indian diva gear....i have a suit that most women wear, and 2 saris as well....but i sent one home, with the Tablas that i sent to my brother....they are so lovely, and flowy, its not as practical because well, i feel so elegant wearing a sari, even tho for most women they wear them all the time...but for me it is dressing up really beautifully, and people really enjoy seeing it as well....how often do they get to see a tall bald white woman wearing a sari, i mean, c'mon..... the women here tho...wow....im really enjoying being around women, girls, old women....youth...i made friends with a range of them in Varanasi..this one girl, Niki, 19years old, in college for social work, taught me a bit about the mindset for women who are of marrying-ish age, amnd what that means for women....her family owned a little variety type shop and barber shop, her mom befriended me first when i was having a bit of a yucky feeling day and she gabbed me and fixed my badly tucked sari....but Niki had me over a couple times for food and talking and girl-stuff....she will have an arranged marriage, but she has a good relationship with her family, so i think she will be okay with whomever she ends up with...but that is normal for women in India...this is how your life goes...she said something to me that really stands out...and probably always will...... she said that its like a woman has a birth, or a new beginning 3 times in her life.... 1- when she is born, 2- when she is married, 3-when she has her own baby.....isnt that so interesting.....its like our 3 most important times are our birth, our marriage, and our babies birth....for them its extreme as in when you marry, you move in with your husbands family, so you relaly do have a HUGE change.....but that is considered to be one of our births.....wow.....i can only respect the half billion or so women who live in this culture and that is their reality....

another moment that was a very much woman moment for me happened in my house i lived in, this wonderful family home where 4 generations lived....they were so lovely....the great grandfather (105 years old...oh my gosh, with this amazingly warm big smile....and 105 wow!!), grandfather and grandmother, 22 year daughter and son, and the daughter had a baby Lakshmi, only20 days old whne we arrived , and son has a son shiva.....4 generations of this family, so amazing..... so one day, i was looking over our balcony to see the ganga, and i looked down below to see the grandma massaging the baby....it was so beautiful, it was such a vigourous massage on such a little body....it taught me about health and body and life and body longevity(you know this oh wonderful masseuses in my life!) , it taught me tenderness and love, it taught me woman taking care of baby, and babie's baby, generational love and family love..... it taught me caring for a baby, and the different ways in which that is done from place to place, family to family....it was such a beautiful set of moments, that stands out in my head....and it was a woman moment....

oh my gosh...so many memories i want to tell you about....

Yoga...most of the time that i was in Varanasi i was practicing with a priest of a temple....on the tmple grounds.....every morning (minus a couple) i woke up, and walked over, like 10 mins away, sometimes after a chai...and i learned and i practiced and i really gained so much strength...it was so so so special.... it is a beyond words kinda thang...because yoga is not so much about the words.... he humbled me, he taught me, he taught me to teach myself....he allowed me to explore my practice and also direct it and receive lessons as well.... it was really so special, and he was my first yogi-gi....adding gee to the end of a name sort of adds an element of respect, and i really respected this man....a lot, and he helped me do things i have been working on now for years.... how special to be taking yoga in India....i really really appreciated that....

for me Varanasi was yoga, and the Ganga, and my first moments experiencing Indian culture and foods and language and humanness and animals and culture....it was music and Tablas, so much....one day we went to Sarnath, the place where Buddha did his first sermon, and the way we got there was really lovely, this Sikh man from Punjab drove us and kept us company for the day, hired a guide to help us understand buddhas temple and lessons, taught us many lessons about his culture, took us for dinner....we just shared a really nice day with this man, it was almost reflective of the lessons to learn from Buddha....that day was lessons outside of the Hindu culture....one which was very much what Varanasi is to me....it is soaked, completely rich in Hinduisms ideology, and it was so beautiful to be honest, i was constantly amazed and in awe and really respected these peoples devotion to their gods, their religion, their goddess ganga.... and i really loved and appreciated having the ganga to go to for guidance, for reassurance, for release....there were many times when i went there by myself, and had moments....i would go with flowers i was given or came across....and i would kneel down and i would put my fee in the water, i would talk in my head or out loud, i would think of people or moments or special bits of my life that i want to think about, send hopeful wishes towards.... people whom i wish for, who have lost family, those who are in need of guidance or some sort of extra they need.....it was just a place where i could go and feel any and all emotions that were in my head, my heart, my soul, my mind....my consciousness.....and i would breathe and connect them into the mother ganga....and she would take on some of it, and comfort me all at the same time......this was my feeling for the the goddess....and this is sort of what so many people come to her with and for....it is so lovely....and since people come to her with offerings of their faith and devotion,t hey bring her flowers and candles....and the shoreline is lined with flowers of all different colours and beauty...i honestly felt such a wonderful connection to her, i really did, i am reading a book called 'Sacred Waters' which talks about her sources...in the himalayan foothills, the state of Uttrakhand, or Garwal, and i am really really looking forward to seeing her at the beginning, where the water is cleaner, and more pure, and maybe experiencing her other qualities.....it is also where the Yoga 'capital' of the world is, the same area....so after the warm South of India, which comes next in the plan, i will go up and experience the Ganga again...in northern India..

the last night i went, and there were lotus flowers floating in the water, and i was sitting watching them, and this rainbow bird came, with this long pointy yellow beak, and i honestly couldn't believe it.....i looked at the whole situation, beautiful lotus flower, in ganga, amazing rainbow bird- ALL in front of my face.....wow.....Jin-di-gee.....life....... right in front of me....

so, now Darjeeling, in the mountains, cold, but so pure and grand and vast...we arrived last night and crashed, today went out looking for a place to sleep, came across a spunky little 12year old diva, Diksha, who invited us to her home (of course, people are SO freakin lovely here, we have met so many lovely people who want to share in our company SO much, i feel honoured every time....) for some tea, and then helped us find a nice new home to live in, its also lovely, we will go spend some time with her, all throughout our stay here, her family is really lovely, and she is so cute, she was looking through all my stuff, asking me all kinds of questions about some innnocent things, and some more adult and/or womanly things, that was pretty hilarious for me to have to explain it all...amy and i held in some serious potential akward moments....laughing right through it, i love kids man....so much to learn from them....and we are hoping to see the vastness of the mountains around, do some trekking, go to the zoo.....see the beautiful nature that we got a taste of on our way up here.....the flowers are calling to me to come and see them with my own eyes, i cant wait!! We may be here for my birthday, not sure...December 14 i turn 25...wow.... its hard to believe...im mid 20s now....what will happen this year?...it will start in India, i still cant believe it, its been a few weeks here already.....time....my watch broke....no time again....another good lesson....so i follow the sun....

It is so lovely outside right now...cold, not so sunny, air is so CLEAN (especially compared to the fogginess and garbage and pollution in Delhi and sadly Varanasi as well) kinda foggy, but so amazingly beautiful, i have seen some special landscape in my life, and this is new....many people have said something to me along the way, and i completely agree....and that is....i am so lucky....i am so lucky to be where i am, doing what i am doing....i have seen so many people who really are not so 'lucky' in life....ive been given a ridiculously good hand... that is for sure....so, right now, i will end this for now, and go see the beauty that i am exisiting in right now....

I must say, this trip is teaching me a ton about a ton....travelling with amy is really really special, at times i wonder if i can handle it.... myself really, my strong independance....this is one of my lessons...for sure, a lesson that i need to really be so comfortable with, because the more beauty i feel in families and babies i see, the more my heart really yearns for that part of my life that will come when it is to come...and then i become my family, and i really really appreciate and believe in that...it is so beautiful what people feel for their families...

So, take a moment to appreciate what you have, your families, your fortunities, your life, your freedoms, your strengths....and all of that around you..... i continue to do that for all of you as well....honestly.....so i send my love, and my best hopes for all that you strive for...

namaste....

Sunni

(P.s. to Guy, i thought of your excitement for the steam trains on the toy-train up here to darjeeling, it whistled the whole time up, now that i think of it, it may be why i had a headache at nite, ha ha...but honestly....the train was so amazing, and i had many moments for you and Veda during the journey!)