July 5, 2005Probably the most dramatic sight of my Kripalu week was that of the full moon rising heavy with juice over the nearby lake. Another pleasure was to finally meet with Dr. Shekhar Annambotla, who now heads Kripalu's Panchakarma Department. Dr. Shekhar is an excellent fellow with whom I shared several enjoyable conversations; he's also a darned good cook, as I discovered on the day that he (assisted by Dr. Mann, who like Dr. Annambotla qualified in Ayurveda from an Indian university) cooked a delicious lunch for his students.

From Kripalu I drove with Sarah Osgood to the home in tiny Westmoreland, NH where she & her siblings had grown up. Her father having just been moved to an assisted-living facility, and a nearby farm currently being clear cut (logging trucks driving up and down the adjacent dirt road literally at all hours of the day and night), tristesse was in ample supply. After Sarah showed me just how much of Westmoreland her mother's Acadian father, Monsieur Bergeron, had once owned-including hayfields that have now been converted into a shopping center-the tens of acres remaining around her family home seemed suddenly to shrink.

Despite the contracting of their habitats, many forest denizens remain, including the beaver down the road, and the visitor who caught us unawares on the evening of June 23, as we sat watching the stars in a meadow near the house. When a rustling began underneath a tree maybe 100 feet away, up came the question: raccoon? possum? cat? As the rustling increased, it became clear in the dim light that the animal in question was making a beeline for us. About ten feet from me its white dorsal stripe made its skunkness obvious. A hurried colloquy ensued: better to risk letting the animal come right up to us, possibly bump into us and become irritated? Or to risk irritating it at a potentially safer distance by shining the flashlight in its eyes? We opted for the latter plan, which inspired the skunk to make an immediate left turn, and to rustle off into another portion of the field, not to be seen again that night, leaving us with the question of why it should have elected to head directly for me at speed, its purpose as unmistakable as it was inscrutable.

On recounting this to Robert Moses, co-publisher of Namarupa, after reaching the Moses family home in Dublin, NH, Robert responded with the story of the time when he had been leading 30 people in meditation at the Sivananda Yoga Farm in upstate New York, and a skunk had walked into the room. The skunk walked carefully past each person in turn, and then walked out again. A good test of firmness of mind!

Dublin I discover was the home of littérateur Henry James. It is also now the home of Satya Moses, the eldest of the three Moses offspring, who at age ten kept us enthralled for a good fifteen minutes with his dramatic rendition of the ancient Egyptian creation myth that he had memorized from a mythology book. Satya also makes films (his current opus: Knife Trader), his main assistant & co-star being his brother Tejas, who at age eight continues to amass Tae Kwon Do belts, and loves the outdoor life. Sita, at age four, identifies horses as her "obsession"-she rides them, reads about them, draws them. Clearly it is not only in Lake Woebegone that all the children are above average!

From New Hampshire I proceeded to Toronto for a busy week, which included a visit to the Sharon Heritage Site, hope of the Sharon Temple of Peace. The Children of Peace were a group of Quakers that wearied of the plain life, and split off to be able to incorporate veneration of the Earth and her bounty and beauty into their worship. Inspired by a vision of a better world based on peace and equality, its builders were instrumental in bringing democracy to Upper Canada. Would that all religious sects could be equally broad-minded, far-sighted, and benign!

Link to News of the Past