{"id":3089,"date":"2021-12-16T08:18:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T08:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/?p=3089"},"modified":"2021-12-16T14:34:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:34:43","slug":"waters-made-me-weightless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/blogs\/waters-made-me-weightless\/","title":{"rendered":"Waters Made Me Weightless!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">The recent incessant rains in many parts of South India brought the lakes, ponds and wells overflowing after 16 years in Bangarapet, Karnataka. I visited Sparrows\u2019 Nest at Bangarapet to meet its founders Gloria and Joe who had generously offered me an underground hermitage there in 2019. I loved to spend time there, in meditative living surrounded by mother earth reminding that I am dust and I will return one day to the soil ! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">Sparrows&#8217; Nest is an Ecological Ecumenical Aaram (place of rest) founded on the dream of God\u2019s Kingdom in the gospel, inspired by <em>Sinsung nim<\/em> (guru) KIM JUN HO a late hermit in South Korea known as the King of Beggars! Gloria who became his disciple after a healing at this holy man&#8217;s hermitage carried on the gift she received and shared it along with Joe Patmury her life partner, in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">My last stay at Sparrows&#8217; Nest was in March 2020 before the lockdown declared in India due to Corona virus. I had a very fruitful time there, attending an online international conference on Enneagram &#8211; a great psycho-spiritual tool developed by ancient Christian hermits in the deserts of Egypt and later on by Sufis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">This year I was planning to visit Sparrows&#8217; Nest hearing about the illness of Gloria. I learnt from Joe&#8217;s Whatsapp message, that my hermitage was flooded in the rains! The video clip below (recorded by Inko their daughter) shows that it has become a swimming pool for the children to have a good time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Flood-in-hermitage-2.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">My certificates, books, torch and gadgets were all turned into useless waste! The kids who swam in there could save 3 drenched books and a bag of wet clothes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">When I received the news in Kerala, it was indeed shocking. I remained with a sense of loss with sadness swirling around me. A lot of other feelings-fear of future without credentials to prove, anger at my stupidity, self-pity etc. surfaced. They came in waves one after another. I observed them come and go paying attention to my breathing. I allowed them to wash over me without denying them and yet not being pulled down. All of a sudden in the middle of the whirl pool of emotions, I could sense certain stillness. The more I focused on this still point, the more it drew me to rest at the center, and I noticed silently the feelings  gradually subsiding losing its force!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">In the restful quiet awareness, I noticed the transitory reality of everything around. All which I think belong to me, do not really belong to me! They have been given to me or entrusted to me! The space I used to stay is no more my room but has become swimming pool for kids. It can be a pond for fish and other aquatic creatures today. I began musing on this truth, smiling at my foolishness in considering them as possessions. Nothing is permanent. Everything is changing! Even my own body!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">In fact we are reminded of this truth if we care to take time to be still to observe.  While I was admiring the painting of the family and inquiring, Inko made a revealing statement that she looked different every time in the pictures taken!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">The <em>maya<\/em> (illusion) as many Indian philosophers termed it, can become <em>leela<\/em> (play) if we have the freedom to be aware and not get sucked in and be deluded! Watch this accidental video captured by a photographer. It makes us wonder at our taken for granted feel of constancy and permanency about our place on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Earth&#039;s Rotation Visualized in a Timelapse of the Milky Way Galaxy - 4K\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1zJ9FnQXmJI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Earth&#8217;s rotation captured accidentally<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">During this Christmas season my gift to you is based on the above realisation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">The place where Christ was born (the cowshed adored as crib) at Bethlehem, offered to his parents temporarily was not his home. Very soon he was on the road to a strange land as refugee! Later he must have wandered with his dad in search for job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">It is a privilege to take part in the experience of Christ child who took in the reality of \u201canithya\u201d (impermanence) and learnt to live with it further in his life owning nothing. At the end, dying with empty arms outstretched, he told John, \u201cHere is your mother!\u201d He did not say, I entrust you my mother! He turned to Mother Mary and pointing to John, said, \u201cWoman, here is your son!\u201d Ultimate gestures of understanding giftedness and passing it on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-justify has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\">The recent events of life have given me a felt sense of being freed from the weight of belongings. This insight had been growing in me since some time after the floods of 2018 in Kerala. It had made me to thankfully refrain from accepting a gift of  land (1 acre 40 cents) and introduced someone else who could take care of it. Now that the Universe has confirmed this intuition, I am growing in contentment and gratitude!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>G.K. Chesterton reminds us: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fulltextarchive.com\/page\/Orthodoxy-by-G-K-Chesterton3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-color\">It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.&nbsp;Satan fell&nbsp;by the force&nbsp;of gravity.<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblica.com\/bible\/niv\/galatians\/5\/\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-purple-color\">It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery<\/span>.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\"><strong>Wish you all an en-Lightened Christmas shedding whatever weighs you down! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-background\"><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> Enjoy the freedom of weightlessness the Christ child <\/span>offers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/bobby\/\">Bandhu Bob<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent incessant rains in many parts of South India brought the lakes, ponds and wells overflowing after 16 years in Bangarapet, Karnataka. I visited Sparrows\u2019 Nest at Bangarapet to meet its founders Gloria and Joe who had generously offered me an underground hermitage there in 2019. I loved to spend time there, in meditative &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/blogs\/waters-made-me-weightless\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Waters Made Me Weightless!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3089"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3117,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089\/revisions\/3117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetalkshop.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}