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Published: March 22nd 2009
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My mornings begin with the waking of the sun. I lay motionless in my thatch hut, staring through the finely knitted mosquito net up at the ceiling. I roll gently through the dew that clings to my body, and listen to the gentle melody of the guitar as it dances its way into my ears. The rising song that changes every morning, but remains familiar with its methodical timing. i quickly throw on a pair of shorts and creep out into the mass of people, whom I now call my friends. With the visible mist that hangs heavy over the compound, it feels as though I am waking up on a cloud. And as the rays of the sun come peircing through the clouds, it feels like I have landed in the heavens. I walk in silence, greeted by dreary but beautiful smiles and wait for the morning work assignments. We split into groups venturing out into the compound and the surrounding forest, and weeach do our part, whatever it may be. We do it for the land and simply for eachother. We stir human poop, rotate living compost, cook breakfast for 50, plant trees, move dirt, build domes, and pick
vegetables... we work, and we work together. We bring a sense of comunity to even the most mundane and often down right disgusting jobs. And we do it with smiles and laughs. And we do it for something other than ourselves and we learn as we do it.
After only a few hours of work the heat of the day comes beating upon our backs. We grab for our water as sweat drips from our bodies. The sub tropic sun is both amazing and unforgiving. And just as we feel as if we can't take any more, the breakfast bell rings and our spirits rise up. There is this undescribable feeling that comes over you when your body is tired, and your soul is full and you sit with a huge group of people who feel just as you do and you share a moment of silence before nourishing your bodies, and as the vibration of the chime fades into silence we find a way to connect somewhere im that silence and I understand what it means to be part of a community. The food is a full vegan diet. The organic vegetables come from surrounding farms and nourish our
hungry bodies. The diet is sugar free, oil free, with hardly any spices beyone salt and pepper. The pure and simple diet is a difficult adjustment from the rest of india which is essentially ONLY oil, sugar and spice, but in a way it is a nice change, and usually still pretty tasty.
For second work I make my way into the forest to visit the eco-dome, a project I have become a delicate part of since my stay. We arrive and assess the progress since our last work. Examining the mud dome for cracks and flaws, walking around the igloo shaped hut, rubbing our hands over the clay packed walls. We spend the next three hours combining all the necessary materials from the surrounding land... mixing, digging, throwing the cod,smoothing it out. Harmoniously working in silence as our work creeps slowly and slowly toward a finish. I have found myself becoming more and more attached to this big round mound of earth. Finding myself thinking about it on my time away, and dreaming about it as I fall deep into sleep. It surprises me to realize how attached you can become to something so simple, yet so powerful.
We work through the sweat and exhaustion, through the intense Indian sun. And the sound of relief comes blarring through the distance. We know lunch awaits us as we walk slowly back through the developing forest. We wind through the small trees, planted in mounds and patches, through the dried up river beds, avoiding the delicate new growth that has come after every rainy season since the project began. We know what awaits this land, that was once claimed by the scorching Indian desert. That a lush fertile forest fighting to last, working is beautiful magic to survive, and to prosper. It is a land written off as waste land, but given another chance. And in the detials of the work done, you see the hope that past volunteers have had for this place. The love and delicacy that went into every planted tree, that was dug into each and every ditch, that was left to graze the land fertilizing the soil, and the souls of all that will come.
After lunch the day is ours. We either stroll back into the forest and wade in the mud pool. Spreading the cool clay all over our bodies, letting
it dry and crack, and then jumping in again. The feeling of the refreshing muddy water as it extinguishes the heat that reaches through to our bones, is almost undescribable. As welcomed chills cover all of our skin, we giggle like children as a cool breath returns to our burning lungs. We spend hours together simply wading and talking, telling stories about our past and the future. We make our way back to huts for daily workshops; a chance for us to teach eachother, about our passions and skills. To bring learning into the community through eachother. We do yoga, we draw, we play games (non-competative games, as they are not allow in Sadhana Forest), we have discussions. We work together and we learn together, and we grow together, like our own little forest....
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Megan FitzSimmons
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Cycles
Again this is simply beautiful, brought tears to my eyes.