November 14, 2005Circumstances having found me rising well before 3 am on the morning of November 4, I decided for a change to walk in the park in the post-dawn, 6:30am-ish. Several people were already there, a couple of them collecting pecans. Three nuts presented themselves to me; I cracked them under my sandal and passed out fragments to fellow walkers. It was a pleasant way to introduce oneself to others, using the principle of the Golden Rule (an excellent name for a code to live by).

I returned to my post-midnight rambling on November 5, and was rewarded by having Mars appear briefly through a triangular hole in the clouds just as I reached the center of the park path's figure eight, where its watercourse offers an opening to the sky. Two days later I arrived in New Mexico, where on November 7 Dr. Claudia Welch & I enjoyed the unusual spectacle of a sizable flock (hundreds? thousands?) of little black birds "rolling" along the ground like an avian treadmill, the tail enders lifting into the air as soon as their tails were left exposed, flying to the front of the pack and landing there, the entire pack "shuffling" forward as other flights landed in front of them. Then, periodically, the entire flock would leap all of a sudden into the air with a whirring of wings, engaging in the most amazing aerobatics, one organism, one dance, a myriad of bodies dynamically aligned, embodying for that moment whatever gust of prana might enthuse them.

On our way back a gaggle of migrating geese seeking to rest in that self-same empty field were spooked by an overamped dog running at them full tilt. Lifting swiftly into the air, they split into two sleek columns that streamed one along Claudia's side, the other along mine. I could not avoid musing on how pervasively we humans affect nature, via even the actions of our allied species. Consider the stray Burmese python whose story appeared a few weeks earlier on the Internet, a python that was surely once someone's pet who after becoming too large to be easily man- (or woman-) handled was set free into the wilds of Florida. Such alien, encroaching pythons (whose numbers are thankfully yet few) are apparently now hoovering up all the small Floridian fauna that they can get their widely-hinged jaws around; I thus found it difficult to muster much sympathy for this particular specimen, who died in the Everglades as it tried to swallow an alligator whole ...

After a seminar at the Ayurvedic Institute, and a couple of excellent evenings outside by the fire with Claudia & our friend Leela, I proceeded to Seattle, and the first ever "Kaula Puja" put on by the International Nath Order ( www.nathorder.org, www.mahendranath.org). Hosted by Kathleen & Steve at their Samadhi Yoga Center ( www.samadhi-yoga.com), a fine time was had by all.

The final observation for this fortnight comes from Swami Jnanananda, the "Swiss Swami" who has lived in India now for a good half century, via a Canadian friend who found herself visiting him during her first visit to India. After the requisite nips from Dharma (the dog who appeared unbidden one day on Swamiji's doorstep and now polices his satsangas, terrorizing the fearful, inattentive and distracted), she heard Swamiji say that we are born original, but die a copy ...
  November 1, 2005 A busy fortnight that began with a flight from Sevilla to Bergamo on Ryanair, my first exposure to that low-cost carrier which has, thankfully, raised its carry-on weight limit to 10kg (from 4). As their check-in limit remains at 15kg total, I ended up contributing to their bottom line from the bottom of my baggage. I think I prefer EasyJet (which I took from London to Málaga), but both are quite flyable, and it is a heartening sign that they & their peers (including companies with unusual names like "Vueling") are flourishing in the Europe of today.

Lago di Como, said to be Europe's deepest lake, is genuinely magical. We stayed in Menaggio, whence we made a quick excursion by ferry to Bellagio before returning to the autostrada to drive to San Giovanni in Persiceto, where Alessandra and Francesco and PAC's other personnel were waiting to greet us. Elvira's bathroom having sprung a leak, it was decided to put us up in a local bed & breakfast, named (fittingly) "B & B." Once we had conferred, and settled program details for the upcoming seminar, and had yet one more superb meal from Rosanna (Elvira's mother-in-law, mother of the dearly departed Maurizio Splendiani), we proceeded to the hot springs at Bagno di Romagna, and the outstanding fresh porcini mushrooms, grilled fresh, that we ate in a local hotel.

The next day we thanked Alessandra for her wise advice that we make a short detour to the Eremo (Hermitage) de La Verna, the location where St. Francis of Assisi obtained his stigmata. The intensely picturesque drive on the E 45 from Bagno di Romagna, via the Passo dei Mandrioli (nearly 4000 feet in elevation), enhanced the profound effect that the hermitage offered on our arrival. Praying as we departed that we be permitted a future visit there, we hurried off in the direction of Perugia, and the lunch that awaited us a half hour beyond, at the home of Ram & Parvati Alexander, tucked securely into the hills above & behind Assisi. After a comfortable night there in Ram & Parvati's company Carmen & I sped back toward Perugia, and the Relais San Clemente, with its thousand-year-old bell tower, the venue for PAC's seminar, an event that proceeded so smoothly that I idly wondered if it had been lubricated by some of PAC's splendid oils ( www.divya.it, www.pac-beautyproject.it). After the last "arrivederci," Carmen & Alessandra & Francesco & I sat down to an exceptional meal at the Osteria del Bosco, just a few km from San Clemente. The osteria's young owner stocks about 200 of Italy's finer wines; I was so impressed when, after mentioning Schiopettino, a little-known vintage from the Veneto, he promptly produced a bottle, and apologized for only having one currently in stock, that I voted with the others to accept his suggestion of a Casavecchio (from the region near Casertà) for our dinner. That wine captivated us, as did each of our meals. Don't miss that establishment (just a few meters from the "Bosco" exit off the E 45) the next time you happen to be in the neighborhood!

Though we didn't make it back up Ram & Parvati's hill until midnight, we were up again early the next morning to see Assisi's sights. Carmen having not previously visited that town, the other three of us dragged her to one site after another, including the Basilica of San Francesco, whose crypt contains St. Francis's tomb; the Temple of Minerva (now, since many centuries, a Catholic church), the sanctuary of San Damiano, the Eremo delle Carceri, and the church of Santa Chiara, all punctuated with an excellent lunch at La Stalla, a restaurant which (as its Italian name implies) occupies an old stable. Santa Chiara, or St. Clare, was St. Francis's first female disciple; she founded the order known as the "Poor Clares." Her body has remained intact, after nearly nine centuries; viewing it is a hauntingly moving experience.

The next day Ram accompanied me & Carmen (we tried unsuccessfully to drag Parvati along as well) north for a night in Venezia. The highlights of our stay: an evening stroll through the city, and a visit the next morning to Santa Lucia, Venice's patron saint (and subject of the gondolier's favorite boat song). Martyred in Syracuse (Sicily) during the 4th century AD, her remains were "procured" by the Venetians some centuries later, and has been guarding the city ever since. A few years back she was stolen by someone in a notorious "uncorrupted-body-napping," then recovered a few days later.

As I review the words above I notice an overabundance of superlatives, for which I apologize; but superlatives are so often required to describe my experience of Italy. We returned reluctantly to Bergamo, whence I entrained for Austria, and Carmen flew back to Argentina via Spain (bad weather first detaining her for two full days). Any lingering gloom I felt about leaving Italy was dispelled by the excellent hospitality of the Sivananda Centre in Reith, near Kitzbühel; the beauty of the Tyrol, and in particular the enormous massif they call the "Wild Kaiser" (the "Wild King"), which dominates the landscape; the excellent food at the Hotel Florian, which caters Sivananda's events there (and in one of whose comfortable rooms I stayed); and the friendly goats nearby. On October 29 Mars was closer to Earth than it will be again until 2018; it rose early, outshing all stars. October 30 was Dhana Trayodashi, the night on which Lakshmi is worshipped; Naraka Chaturdashi, the Indian Halloween, followed the next night, which this year just happened to be our own Halloween; which means that the next day, All Soul's Day, happened to fall on Dipavali, India's Festival of Lights. I flew back to Texas on that day; that night as I was walking in the park I bent to pick up a stem of pecan leaves when suddenly the lights went out, and Mars transfixed me, Saturn just rising, Orion equidistant from him & his foe Mars like some sort of referee (or like a man with two consciences, one on each shoulder), the Pleiades supporting and egging Mars on from a discrete distance ...

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