One is silver, and the other gold. That’s a song from Girl Scouts.
I made a new friend! I feel like I’m 12 and in Girl Scouts again; I’m so excited.
She’s this extremely spiritual, beautiful Black woman who just toured India. I met her at a lecture on Spiritual Masters.
I’ll tell you how it actually happened. We kept looking at each other during the lecture, and finally, we literally walked toward each other at the same time and said, “Do I know you?”
“What do you do?” I asked her.
“Nothing,” she said.
“Me too,” I said.
“I’m writing a book,” she said, looking into my eyes.
“Me too,” I said.
“Where do we know each other from?” I asked.
“I feel like I know you, but I can’t place it,” she said. Her hair was styled in a cool, asymmetrical short cut.
Then it occurred to us. “We know each other from a past life, don’t we?” she asked me.
“Yeah,” I said, looking into her green eyes. “Is that the real color of your eyes?” I asked because they were stunning.
“Yeah,” she said, looking very intensely at me.
We both discussed how we don’t really know what enlightenment is. Does anyone? We’re meeting for tea sometime soon!
A woman with knife scars likened to the japanese art of kintsugi
If women ruled the world, I think ‘femicide’ wouldn’t be a common term. It would be more of a scandal, a pariah… I think there would be no difference between the death of a boy or of a girl. I imagine there would be more integrated outrage, less segregated excuses, less people thinking the victims somehow earned or could have avoided their abuses. I imagine more men understanding that women are their equals in personhood, in humanity, in their right to dignity. In their right to choice, in their right to reject, in their right to not endure disrespect. I imagine women without emotional and physical scars from being survivors of tragedy. I imagine women who do not have to be mothers or daughters, friends or lovers, to be worthy of man’s sympathy. A more united world for women’s safety, and a more unforgiving world for gender based crimes. A world vastly different from ours, but not so different that it can’t change with time.
Photo and Caption courtesy of Umi-Amara Ibrahim via Scopio
The Spiritual lecture I went to was intriguing. But how can I say this in a politically correct way? It was a bunch of white people practicing Hinduism and Buddhism.
Which is actually cool. But they practice it a little differently. I don’t know how to describe the difference; it’s something you just feel. I’ve been in temples with Indians, and it’s different. I wouldn’t even say Indians practice it better or in a more real way. It’s just different.
The ideas were beautiful, but maybe it was too ethereal for me.
The mantras that we chanted as a group did move me, and I could feel the vibrations in the room.
There was a lot of talk about rituals. In Sikhism, we respect rituals, but we don’t perform many of them.
I’m looking for more like-minded people to talk about stuff with. My close friends are very spiritual, but I want more. Isn’t that the human condition, to always want more?
So the real key was the truly amazing people I met at this thing. It’s some kind of association, and they’re 15 minutes from my house!
Where have these people been all my life? Black people, white people, Hispanic people—and I really did love the white people who led the lecture. One woman was from England. That’s a different kind of white.
Cultural Portrait of Child Dressed as Shiva with a Woman
Varanasi - Uttar Pradesh - India
Masaan Holi is a special two-day event in Varanasi. During this celebration, devotees put ashes from funeral fires and a pink powder (gulal) on each other. This event is also seen as a way to celebrate death. Many people join a big parade to the riverbank or ghat.
Photo and Caption courtesy of Abhishek Ph via Scopio
I’ve got to stop this; some of my best friends are white.
I need to respect the people who run this country. I kid.
Of course I respect my elders just as much as I respect my gods.
In all seriousness, I need a spiritual community. We don’t necessarily share all the same beliefs or do things the same way, but there is this spirit in that community that I once found with a group of friends who lived in Toledo, Ohio, in my thirties.
I lost touch with them for various reasons. But I would drive an hour and a half every Wednesday to see this group of people for dinner at someone’s house. And we would shoot the spiritual shit.
It helped get me through some of my own shit.
Photo courtesy of Joaquin Corbalan via Scopio
I think America lacks community sometimes; that’s why college is so fun. People are everywhere. Adulthood in this country can be lonely. It’s less so in other countries like India.
I know, I started drinking in my thirties for a couple of years because I was so alone.
I didn’t need AA. I needed a community.
I found it. Now I would like to expand it.
nina
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