Last night I completed chapter eight of our story Full Full (working title), of draft three (with many more to come) it was particularly difficult to work on, as it related the story of her last year. In some ways it also helped.
This morning I was outside our house, sitting on a stone slab bench, beneath our wonderful strong shading tree. I was waiting for my neighbour, for our morning cycle.
A friend came along
It was a messenger from Manjula to reveal she knew what I was doing, supported me and sent her love.
It’s a red eye butterfly. It continued with me for over six kilometres, as I cycled Another messenger from MAnjula
With critical timing.
On Facebook this MAnjula Memory popped up from our last visit to England four years ago.
I’ve had a few messengers now.
Equally impressive was the circling dragonfly and even pretty moths get in on the act.
Because our attention shapes our entire experience of the world — this, after all, is the foundation of all Eastern traditions of mindfulness, which train the attention in order to anneal our quality of presence — the objects of our attention end up, in a subtle but profound way, shaping who we are.
Because there is hardly a condition of consciousness that focuses the attention more sharply and totally upon its object than love, what and whom we love is the ultimate revelation of what and who we are.
That is what the great Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset(May 9, 1883–October 18, 1955) explores in a series of essays originally written for the Madrid newspaper El Sol and posthumously published in English as On Love: Aspects of a Single Theme (public library) — a singular culmination of Ortega’s philosophic investigation of Western culture’s blind spots, biases, and touching self-delusions about love, that is, about who and what we are.
our Hindu house has a Pooja room, set up by MAnjula it’s still used for certain festivals. Other households would use it everyday. Our next festival is likely to be for the big rotund guy, my favourite: Ganesh.
No two houses are the same which might be due to the specific Gods, they worship, their caste or maybe just because India is incredibly consistently inconsistent.
In memory of MAnjula as with many households a photo, is placed in the hall (lounge/living room) when people die. For the first year we’d place flowers around her every month, with a special Pooja on her annual death anniversary. This all part of a series of rituals to help her soul spirit find another body and be reincarnated into her next life.
Tanuja at Manjula’s second death anniversary.
In our house there’s a main photo of MAnjula in each of our two lounges. Fact is there are photos of her everywhere. My son thinks The whole house is becoming a shrine.
Sowbaghya who did all the preparation, cooking, decoration for each of Manjula’s death anniversaries.
Now after two years I’ve decorated her like a Christmas tree with lights all around her.
Sometimes she’ll get a little extra treatment with red or yellow dots and we’ll do a little Pooja. It’s essentially a prayer with a request to god.
We’re flexi here.
Her pic is also found on the tree out the front of our house, T-shirt’s and masks her no 1 place is in my heart.
For me it’s especially important to acknowledge our being together and celebrate Manjula as many didn’t know about our relationship.
Already people are beginning to help. There’s an appeal here or Manjula and I will be making a direct donation. Contact me if you wish to join in, tours@mycycle.co
We went to the vets again today as Lucie was sick a few times last week.
She loves her trips out in auto and ambassador.
She has problems with her liver and kidneys maybe due to Tick Fever she caught a year ago.
It’s a chronic condition, just medication to help her organs function but not cure.
It’s very serious.
We stocked up on specialist renal diet from Austria (!) and now two drugs, probiotics and two vitamins. It’s not cheap but who cares? I’ve been here before.
It’s been a difficult few years.
The ox fell off and lost his horns. But let’s no loose sight of the positive. The Bul Bul returns. This is the fourth time a Bul Bul has nested here. First on the roof, next on the middle level, then in the drive and now in our back yard. This made MAnjula so happy.
Manjula would have appreciated the fly past. We had a gathering at the Barge pub in Mysore for our wedding anniversary. Yes, I love Manjula and Mysore. Lean on me babe, forever. We both miss you MAnjula
