AN INTERLUDE: Oct 1, 2006 - Sept 31, 2010

This period of time was spent primarily in-retreat.  I lived in a little ‘Zen’ hut in Deep Cover, near the Swartz Bay ferry docks, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.  I call it an interlude, because if I could have been in India I would have been.  I had planned on going back to India in the fall of 2006, but it was clear to me when I returned to Canada in the spring of 2006, that my mother was in her final year(s) and I decided I wanted to be with her during this time.  She died in May 2008.

After living in the Zen hut from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2008, I returned to live in my condo in Victoria for the rest of 2008 until the early summer of 2009.  It was a busy year.  After my mother died, I decided to finalize all my domestic affairs.  (Owning property seemed an encumbrance, so I divested myself of property and ‘things’.  Though a little scary at the time, it still seems the right thing to have done as I reflect on it during the winter of January 2013.)  With the sale of my condo in the May, I moved back into the Zen hut in July 2009 and stayed until I left for my fourth trip to Arunachula, India in the early fall of 2010.

The interlude was a valuable time, primarily focused on living quietly and meditating.  I was supported in my spiritual practice by a meditation teacher, whom I had met at the Ramana Maharshi Ashram, at the foot of the mountain of Arunachula, Thiruvanamali, India. 

During this period I did little writing, and more reading.  However, there were a few notes sent off to friends so I include them as ‘an interlude’ to my India journals.  They are within the same time frame, and perhaps mindset.  A transition happened while I was in India in 2010, precipitating a shift in perspective.  The lively ‘musings’ of the latter part of 2010, 2011 and 2012 are evidence of that shift, so I have put them under a separate heading.

As I edit these final India musings at the end of 2012, I wonder if more writing will occur.   Once again, change is in the air, but the direction is unpredictable.