Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Arriving Home and Patient Update/Donations


I arrived safely home on Feb 26th, but with a horrible bout the last 48 hours in India of dysentery. I became violently ill and was treated twice during the day at the clinic at Meherabad with ayurvedic medicines in adjunct with rehydration salts. I wasn't sure I'd be able to travel unless I had a seat in the bathroom- joke, but you get the point. However it did begin to clear and I was able to go to Baba's Birthday celebration at Samadhi in the wee morning hours of the 25th. It was beautiful and very moving, I felt emptied out, in more ways than one. Receptive. Open. Astounding realization of Baba God Man. 

As I left India after Samadhi for a 6 hour ride in a private car to Mumbai airport I felt such a mix of emotions and awarenesses, realizing that this might take a long while to actually process. My arrival back to my beautiful home, friends, office and clients and literally gorgeous downtown Asheville was very touching. I realize what we have, what we can never realize we have- unless you venture far, far from home. The amazing gift of private bathrooms equipped with running clean hot water, a flush toilet and shower - much less this thing called toilet paper! This alone! The quietude of my home, without a strong odor of particulates, diesel or sewage. And such space! This is one reason I search again and again the outer realms of travel at times... to remember and have gratitude for what I am given each day.

Of course on the flip side of that coin are the blank, vacant looks in the eyes of many Americans, which is a great soul loss of embodiment and the cost of modern American culture of consumerism. The focus on doing and consuming that is so apparent at every moment here is a hard shift. This is the price we've paid, for what we have received. Perhaps all the more reason to devote one's life to practices of presence and embodiment, as in Somatic Experiencing and Integral Somatic Psychotherapy. Each day when you wake up, offer a prayer of thanks for that little white porcelain seat down the hall and for all the food in the refrigerator and your roof and that body lying next to your own. And especially offer up a thanks for your own blood-and-bones vessel that houses you, your own True Home.





Update on Shailendra, the brave man with double amputations~

People have asked me about how the patient has been doing and I got a fantastic email from Dr. Anne this very week. His progress has been remarkable and I include her note to me here:

"Wishing to share with you all that Shailendra is making remarkable progress! On Friday the 4th he sat in the wheelchair for the first time. On Saturday he insisted that he was fit to go to the samadhi, so he did the 6 transfers from bed to wheelchair , wheelchair into the car etc...and all went very well. He was beaming to be again at the samadhi. His wife and father were with him, they had brought garlands! Yesterday he went in the wheelchair all the way to the dhuni platform, despite the bad condition of the road in a few places. He wanted to go, and not by car! He greeted every person we met on the way with a wide smile. Seeing his determination, I feel the wounds on his residual limbs will soon heal. A medical laser will now be used. At the moment there does not appear to be phantom pain."


Note about Donations: The family does need financial help to pay for his medical care, rehabilitation,
prostheses, and to support the family until he can earn a living again.

If you feel moved to make a donation, a bank account has been opened in the name of his wife, Umadevi Ahirwal, in the Arangaon branch of The Indian Overseas Bank.

Account No 0721 01000005445 IFSC code IOBA 0000721.

With these code numbers donations can be made directly to this wonderful family from anywhere in India or abroad.

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