cleared for takeoff

My last hours in India! I'm actually starting to feel just a little bit teary! Here's a partial list of things I will miss:

crazy, beautiful round the clock birdsongs
the sky at night
the sky at sunset
open air outside showers, with beautifully tiled floors and lots of vegetation draped around
the food!!
some of the people, okay?

My friend Marsha emailed and said that she's succesfully done my taxes for me, woo hoo! Well, they're not complicated, but it's a real load off to not have to worry about how they're going to be completed. Thank you Marsha! She wrote that I'm actually receiving bucks back from the feds, and I'll owe some to Oregon. I don't think I've ever received a refund from anyone!

So now, I have another good reason for spending a lot of rupees for a taxi to the airport tomorrow, in addition to that carbon footprint I mentioned.

I found Romeo. Yeah! I hardly ever visit the main house at our guest house, but the evening that I wrote the previous posting (see previous posting about Romeo), I cruised through and saw a DVD sitting on a ledge. It's an India and Walt Disney animated co-creation called Roadside Romeo. Ha ha!!!

haaaa haaaa!!!

okay maybe not that funny, but I sure think so.

Folks at lunch today kept asking me when I'm returning to India, and Buddha Smiles, for more fun and games in the roasting hot sun digging swales and puking my guts out. No no okay, they didn't insert those last bits, and actually Sugar didn't ask me when I'm returning (she knows better). But I practically sprayed my words, "Are you kidding? I'm so outta here I'm never looking back!"

On relfection, I allowed that I could perhaps see myself coming back, exploring the north. In another lifetime, in another body. Since cells regenerate themselves on a cyclical basis and maybe even my neurons and synapses will reorganise themselves as well...it is entirely conceivable that I'll come back in a few years!

My friend Camille asserts that I'm hooked even though I don't know it. I am curious and intrigued as to how this will manifest itself.

Yesterday we convened in the main house at College - which is actually named, if you'll recall "Joy NVC Family and College Guest House" - for an NVC practice session. It was...it was profound, in a quiet way. Set and setting, for sure.

The day before, I had sauntered through looking to ask if I could borrow an internet connection since the cable for the internet cafe had been cut (for the eleventeenth time) (maybe I already bitched about this one?) (I'm sure I did to someone). Ali, who is staying with Laura (who owns the place...well not really owns, since nothing is OWNED in Auroville), offered me her laptop after a really great conversation. Then more women came in and sat down and we were all hanging out in this beautiful home with a beautiful breeze and birds and cats and man, the vibe, 'twas so kind :) No but really! I found a didge and a drum....

So these last hours in India are being very wonderful.

Now, I need to go hose myself down again, because every pore in my body is oozing sweat and mingling with the humidity in a most unseemly and gross manner.

My next post will probably be from Stateside! And who knows what will happen. I feel excited about What's Next. Maybe I'll join a community there. Maybe I'll learn Spanish. Maybe Tucson will springboard me to Mexico. Sugar says the art and working artist community is very strong in Tucson. I saw an ad on HelpX for a woman who owned Casbah Tea House (the restaurant has closed down) which is now a traveling caravan in the summer, touring festivals up and own the west coast, making falafel and bellydancing.

ciao for now!!