Tag: family

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The social path

The Assisi branch of the Ananda family!

The topic for today’s Inner Renewal Week class was “The Social Path to Self-Realization: World Brotherhood Colonies”, which ended up being the theme for my entire day!

First of all, I happened upon this recent photo of Ananda Assisi community members and was struck by how deeply connected I still feel to these souls even though it’s been over fifteen years since I lived there. Time and distance don’t matter; they’re family!

Then we ate lunch with Deodan, who just arrived from Assisi last night and will be here for two months learning about managing a community. Our lunch table included devotees from Italy (Deodan), Switzerland (Ramesha ), and Sweden (Anna), showing yet another beautiful aspect of Ananda — people from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, and lifestyles coming together to live, work, and serve in a harmonious unity.

To cap it all off, we led a sing-along tonight in the Temple of Light. Village residents, visitors from other communities, and Expanding Light guests joined together in blissing out to Swamiji’s music; personally, I felt totally uplifted! And I found myself reflecting yet again on how important Swamiji considered music to be in building strong communities. He addresses it in this quote (one of my favorites, no surprise!):

“I can best express through music the feeling of holy upliftment that possessed me. Therefore I tell people, “If you want to know me, listen to my music.” It is through this that people have come to understand what Ananda is truly all about. Without its influence, Ananda would not be what it is today. Books and lectures are only the outer form of the teachings. Music is its coursing blood.“
(from A Place Called Ananda, Chapter 13)

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It’s almost time

It’s almost time to say our good-byes; almost time to fly home to California in order to return to “regular” life.

It’s always hard to leave our Lugano family and dear friends, despite the fact that we’re going back to be with other family and dear friends! In fact, we are extremely fortunate in that wherever we go there are people we love, and who love us in return.

We’re sad, but we know in our hearts that — truly — there’s nothing to be sad about: we’re carrying all the people we love with us in our hearts, wherever we go.

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Ciao ciao

Today was about prepping and packing; tomorrow we fly to Switzerland to visit Ramesha’s family. We’ll also spend time with Ramesha’s (pre-Ananda) best friends, who’ve continued to be very close to us over the years.

I can’t really wrap my mind around anything else right now, especially since I really want to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Buona notte!

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Family and memories

​We celebrated my Dad’s 85th birthday today at a park in Sunnyvale. All five of his children were there, plus a couple of spouses, several grandchildren and one great-grandchild. 

It was a lovely afternoon…and it brought up things to think about. 

For example, the whole crazy thing about time. For something that’s an illusion, it sure looks and feels very real. And because I’m fully caught up in the dream reality that time is a part of, I have to make my peace with the “reality” that sooner or later every single person I love (and even the ones I don’t) are going to go away. Including my Dad. 

With time comes change. My brother has a neurological disease that–with time–is taking away more and more of his functionality, independence, and future. 

I grew up in the Bay Area, but as I drive around there are so many changes–wrought by time–that even when I recall a memory there’s very little sense of connection with the environment that triggered it. 

I think this is why we “can’t go home again.” Maybe we can locate the physical place or rejoin the people (the “house” or its equivalent), but the sense of “home”, of “belonging” has vanished. Sigh.