Greetings my friend from the countryside of Ireland’s west coast.
I arrived here a few days ago, and the journey was long and testing, or shall I say it gave me plenty of opportunities to practice.
Rather than break the stages of travel, I wanted to maximize my time in Dharamshala, so I decided to do all the stages back to back. I took the bus from Dharamshala to Deli. An 11 hour overnight bus with one bathroom/food stop at midnight. After the first few hours of spiralling mountain roads, the roads widen into highways, enabling one to rest a little. The bus arrives around dawn, before the sun comes up. It doesn’t arrive at a bus station, but rather you have a choice of getting out at one of the three suburbs along the highway where it stops. At these dusty polluted stops, there are rickshaws and taxis, aiming to sell their service. Some are listening to what you are asking for, sometimes answers are filtered by the colour of your skin, some have a different agenda, like wanting to take you to an associate’s hotel ‘to sleep a little’ before you go on.
I agreed on a fare with a young driver to take me to the airport in his rickshaw. We walked with my bags to his rickshaw through the crowd. He was sweet but his little tuktuk was falling apart. He stuck the bags in the back, and then placed the seat and the back of the seat in place. The seats were not anchored to the frame, and until repaired, if it ever gets repaired, it will be the weight of the passenger’s body that will keep them in place.
The ride to the airport is about 45 minutes. There were moments when my tired self felt like I was in an animation film. As time is money, our little wheels weaved through traffic on the highway wherever an opening arose. Since there were no curtains on the sides, the wind blew through the tuktuk creating a funnel cloud with my hair, which was whipping my face. I couldn’t do anything about it since my hands were busy holding onto the bar and my bag, while using my body to keep the seats in place over the many bumps. Past the tired frustration, was a humour for the ridiculousness that almost had me laughing out loud.
Mother India easily draws from me loving kindness for its sheer colourful humanity, but there are other interactive moments of life in India, like the nature of crowding and traffic that challenge that. Rather than my smile projecting “may you be happy”, what arises is more of a cracked smile and “f*ck off” comes to mind. Perhaps I could have blamed the irritability on tiredness, but it is best to understand that opportunities to practice will arise. We should rejoice for them.
In India, the airport doors are policed to check tickets and passports. Nobody enters that doesn’t have a ticket that will depart within a few hours. When I arrived at the airport, the line to enter was long, my tired body and mind were preoccupied with a bladder ready for relief. Once I entered the building, found the lovely clean western toilets then the check in counter, I felt an ease and that time was on my side. Well, at least that was until I realized I didn’t have my backpack.
F******ck!! I immediately revisit the washroom, but it isn’t there. I went to the information desk, lost and found, and the police. We had security check me out of the building to try and backtrack my steps. Between language barrier and attitude towards possessions I felt challenged to find people that cared to help me. Everyone would tell me they could help me if I told them where I lost it. If I knew where I lost it, it wouldn’t be lost. I was trying to come to terms with the misfortune of events that can ripple from a tired mind. Since I always wear a small body pouch that hold my credit cards, money and passport, this loss would not interfere with my travels. It would however seriously challenge my functionality for the near future, as my backpack had my laptop, datebook with all the arrangements for the Ireland retreat, my precious journal of the year’s teachings, the gold X rings that people orders, my seeing glasses, meds, plus plus.
I took a break from the search to check in for my flight. When I approached the counter, the handle of my suitcase wouldn’t retract and I had to get sent to a different baggage department for unusual and oversized sized items. Where was my flow? Were these two mishaps advising me not to board this plane? No, my gut told me to revisit my sense of humour and lighten up. Every time I would remind myself to let go and let be what will unfold, I’d start to relax until I’d think of another irreplaceable thing that was in the bag. Shite! Okay, inhale, exhale, smile, let it go. For an hour and a half I searched everywhere I walked and spoke to every airport employee available, as well as had a lot of self talk that it was not the end of the world. When I finally accepted that it was time to fully let it go and head for my flight, I decided that it would be irresponsible of me to not at least create a report with the police so that if in the rare chance it showed up, it could be sent to friends I have in Delhi. I went to the police counter, which is part of the information desk that kept sending me to other places and people in the airport. I showed a picture of the bag to the officer. He turned his head slightly and pointed to a bag “that one?” Wow, yessss, that one! I experienced a moment of laughter, tears, relief, liberation, gratitude, a wink from the Universe, and a profound teaching erupting simultaneously.
Here was an extraordinary practice of letting go, and I really did, even though with sadness. In the end I walked away with immense gratitude that I didn’t have to let go after all. This experience definitely aided a peaceful sleep through a lot of the continued travel, which was 3 hour flight to Dubai, 2 hour wait, 8 hour flight to Dublin, 3 hour bus to Galway and an hour taxi from the bus to where a bed awaited me. For the travel stress and commotion, I arrived rejoicing for all the conditions that showed up for the peace of mind and gratitude that was oozing through me for the thousands of dollars that didn’t need to be spent replacing the contents of the bag.
Now the Burren landscape and it’s beating heart, elemental and human, are ready to welcome friends next week for our retreat time together. Stay tuned, stay well, stay loveable.
Sending abundant cling-free love and smiles from the Burren in your direction. Let it go, let it be, trust and smile,
x Gisele
What a story and experience! Glad it worked out…plus now you can enjoy Ireland! I have so many fond memories of my retreat time in the burren with you. 💚
Love you friend
Lots of smiles reading your last 3 posts. So glad you are safe and full of positivity.