I saw many beautiful expressions of joy at the Holi Festival at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah but none compared to the joy I saw on the face and in the body of this dancer. When I saw her, there was already a large crowd gathered around her. She was both fully experiencing joy independent of the crowd as well as being aware of the joy she was bringing the crowd through her expressive dance.
Her dance was a mixture of traditional hula hooping, moving her body through the hula hoop, and hand gestures. I searched the internet to see if I could find more information on the meaning of this dance. I found several YouTube videos but no specific information about Krishna dancing with a hula hoop.
I was able to find information about Krishna dancing in general on this site http://krishna.org/kirtana-the-song-of-ecstasy-the-dance-of-the-soul/ It says that Krishna dancing is called “kirtana” and “There is no motive in performing kirtana. It is the song and dance of ecstasy, the dance of the soul. The soul is dancing; therefore, the body is dancing. “
I know very little about Krishna beliefs and practices beyond what I have heard preached between color throws the two years that I have been to the festival but much of it seems to be about being your best self and living with joy. Certainly ideas that most of us could benefit from integrating into our own lives. It is odd perhaps to compare Dave Ramsey’s teaching to that of Krishna but I heard both talk about not wasting time on trying to make your weakness strong but rather work on making your strengths even stronger. Because you will never excel at your weaknesses but you will be able to excel at your strengths. I also heard preached at the festival the law of attraction. The Law of Attraction is basically that you attract to you and go toward those things that you think about, be they positive or negative. I personally believe that it takes a lot of hard work to get the positive outcomes that you want but focusing on the positive outcomes rather than all of the barriers to achieving them certainly makes it a lot easier to keep working towards those outcomes.
Here are some additional pictures of the dance.
I just ran across a paper which I wrote for a class I took during my Occupational Therapy program called “Death, Dying, and Bereavement.” The assignment was simply to write a reflection paper about a book about death and dying. I was reminded of the power of Tuesdays with Morrie and wanted to share my reflections.
I first read this book several years ago, just after I had written a paper on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). I chose the topic for my paper, because of a comment my grandmother had made about a friend who had ALS. In her frank manner she simply said, “that is the worst disease.” I find it ironic that the effects of the same disease, affecting a man who saw beyond the demyelination of his own nervous system, could bring so much richness and beauty into the world. It is certainly a book which has affected me as well as countless others who otherwise probably would not have picked up a book about dying.
I first read the book on a Thanksgiving flight to North Carolina. It was a powerful book in my life then. I began it again on a Thanksgiving flight to Boston – Morrie’s home – and finished it as I returned again to my home in Salt Lake City.
I must admit that I had a certain amount of fear in reading this book again because I knew that it was about right living and I knew that I was not especially happy with the way that I was living. When I started to read the book, I was so astonishingly amazed that there was no pain in it. There was no condemnation, only a compassionate arm placed around one’s shoulder with a gentle nudge of love to show what living can be, what living can mean. The book was very healing for me. It made me grateful for the mighty internal struggle that I have gone through this semester because it has made me a better person, a more focused student, and much more appreciative of every moment and much more careful with every moment I am alive.
I think that it is hard for one not to love Morrie. I felt this way as I was reading the book. I think that the love that I felt for him – and the connectedness with the story that I felt as I was flying into the city that was such a part of the story – made me feel so much more love and appreciation for the friend I was visiting in Boston and for the two friends who would also be flying in on a later flight to Boston. How could I not love them, how could I not cherish them when every moment is so important.
On the return flight home, as I was nearing the middle of the second to last page of the book, my eyes were filled with tears, my nose was running, the airline steward was asking me if I wanted pretzels, and my friend sitting next to me was asking me a question. My instinct was to hide my face and tears with a diverted look and a short answer and to finish the last paragraphs of the book in which I was so engrossed. My heart told me that I could not read a book such as Tuesdays with Morrie while ignoring a friend. I raised my face to her, answered her question, which involved solving a “puzzle” out of her business administration text book. We continued to work on puzzles out of the book and continued to have a fabulous conversation about a lighthouse we had seen the day before. We spoke about life and that living it required not only the what (i.e. school, family, work) but more importantly, the how (i.e. quality, right living, etc). I concentrated on being present with her, in that moment and I appreciated the opportunity which Morrie had given me – not to escape into this beautiful world – but rather to enjoy a wonderful friend in mine.
Morrie served as my guide on this trip to Boston. Knowing that I was so near to the geographical details – and even the temporal details – of this last months chronicled in this book helped me to hold his beautiful perspective near to me and made me appreciate so richly – yet without holding desperately onto it – the time that I had to be with three very dear friends.
Thank you Morrie!
A unique feature of the area around Sanmenxia is that the land is made of a very fine mud. Because of this it is very easy to dig into the earth and build structures. The orphanage director took us to a tourist spot outside of town where there were many houses/rooms built underground. The rooms are wonderfully cool inside. While there we ate a traditional meal cooked in outdoor earthen oven. As with all meals in China is was delicious and way more food than we could eat.
The stairway into the underground houses.
Looking down into the underground houses from ground level.
Detail of a window at the underground houses.
The Yellow River also runs through Sanmenxia. There are two major rivers in China, the Yellow River being one of these. The Yellow River is of significance to Chinese people because it is a place from which their ancestors come from. They made the an analogy of these people being similar to an ancient native culture such as the Mayans. So being able to go to the Yellow River is like being able to go back to your roots.
