A day of highs!

Meeting Dadi Janki, visiting Jain Temples and Sound Spa with Brother David - what a blessed day it was yesterday! No doubt it will be one of the most memorable days of this trip.

Dadi Janki is 101 years old, she is one of the two Yogis who lead the Brahma Kumaris - a woman-led organisation. She gave us a class in the morning and the night before had led us in meditation. Dadi walked into the hall and one could clearly feel the energetic vibration increase, noting that there were already over 200 of us present! One cannot help but have great respect for this remarkable soul who is an example of the power of honouring one's spiritual being in this physical world.

The ancient Jain Temples are in the middle of Mount Abu town's hustle and bustle and still has daily worshipers, as it contains altars to many deities. Exquisitely and intricately carved marble is all over, the ceilings and pillars and walls - unfortunately no cameras are allowed inside. Built from the 11th to the 13th century it is breathtaking and I cannot imagine what was used to achieve such beauty and accuracy.  The temples are monumental works of art, the energy in the place is just wow!  Tourists are permitted in the afternoon and so it was a much quicker visit than I hoped with all the people flowing through the temples.

Our day ended with a Sound Spa, with Brother David who played many instruments for us - wooden flute, didgeridoo, various indigenous instruments from different parts of the world and singing bowls. Oh the singing bowls - i could feel my body vibrating and wanting to fly away. What a fantastic way to end our day. I will be checking if I can take a cd home.  

Gyan Sarovar

Gyan Sarovar, the venue, has the most beautiful  gardens and is a beautiful sight to behold as you arrive after an arduous journey. It is a big complex with a number of buildings all looking well kept and immaculate.

I posted this 2 days ago, however wifi connectivity is limited and the programme busy - so here it is after a failed effort. 

The rooms are small and modest. I am sharing with 2 other South Africans. The bed is hard and the bathroom is different to what we are used to. In India the bathrooms can surprise in different ways.

There is an amazing team of people preparing  and serving the food because there are hundreds of people on the property. All meals are simple and wholesome - vegetarian  with no onion and no garlic, these do not from part of the BK diet.

Saturday we had a tour of the property. Everything is simple and humble. The focus is on spiritual service. 

The solar power used by the Brahma Kumaris, (BKs) is phenomenal, using 3 different systems of solar heating, one providing a source for the kitchens another for back up when the lights go out and another provides power to some of the operations.

We also went to the town and did some shopping. Notably mostly out of towners were in the shops. The many fabrics and clothes are produced locally in this area. There is a lot of poverty in this place based on the condition of the homes I saw. The BKs and the Jain Temples in the area bring tourists and help to keep the economy on the go.

Most guests arrived Saturday and we had a beautiful  welcome session which ended with each person receiving  a shawl, blessing and a toli (sweet treat). Brother Charlie led us in a powerful meditation.

The welcome  included Dr Partap of the Global Hospital - a BK project, he spoke about the science of spirituality. The hospital is located in the town and serves the community. The doctors are not paid, they volunteer and practice meditation. We will have a visit to the Hospital in the week, I  looking forward  to it.

The blessing I received last night: By living your life in peace, you contribute to a peaceful world.

I am holding this in my consciousness today

Getting from Cape Town to India

It was easy enough to decide to leave the city of Cape Town to take a journey that I have dreamed for a few years now. 

When the invitation came to attend the Peace of Mind Retreat in Mount Abu - where the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual  University  head quarters are, I did not hesitate to accept it. This was the 3rd opportunity I  had to go to India. In this case, the 2nd invitation  to the Peace of Mind Retreat. I did not want to pass it up.

The last time I had to pull out due to lack of funds. This time the money came the same week I received the invite. It was also the same week we got our kitten, Flower and the same week I was knocked out by the flu or something for 8 days. This germ continued to boomerang 3 or 4 times since.

So preparing for this trip was not as easy as saying YES to it.  I could afford the trip because I have had quite a few projects to work on. The workload was a challenge to manage with the recurring illness. Today I sat in the plane to Johannesburg thinking it's a miracle I managed  to organise myself to make this happen. The time within which to get everything together was short and I did it all in small chunks. Window shopping for luggage bags, then later going to buy it.

Carving out an hour of my day to book flights or do another errand. Somehow I pulled it all off.

The real achievement  here is that I was able to put my own self care needs above work demands. This trip is about taking care of my spiritual needs. This is a real growth point, especially  since i did this with a full workload.

It was still a challenge to stop working to let go of projects that are underway and to trust that they will be okay and still be there when I get back.

So saying yes was easy. Making it happen was challenging and I persevered. Now, it is happening. I was not always this woman, today I am thankful  I  am woman who can make her dreams come true.

Peace

Let's create the world our children deserve

SJC organised a great programme called Healing Wounds for the families of some 11 sisters who were killed in gender-based violence. Today I was honoured and humbled to share a simple self healing tool with these families who were mostly women.

In the afternoon I found myself listening to #DivasUnitedSA. We were enthralled by an all female Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and women with the most wonderful singing voices including Thembeka Mnguni who was hands down the hot favourite of the crowd! There were Young Divas who wowed the crowd. Then the winner of Young Divas 2016, Dirja Lekas sang a solo - Believe by Cher, It was so heartfelt, this 12 year old girl with an amazing voice brought me to tears.

I cried, because those young women who lost their lives too had hope in their hearts, promise and potential and are now gone. I cried because I cannot be sure that this young girl with the voice of an angel will grow to be a successful women singer, that she will not be violated by this world. I cried because I was reminded that us adults, the mature of our society need to do better, need to pack away our egos and create the world our children deserve!
Are you with me?

Orlando Shooting

50 People were killed on Sunday 12 June in Pulse, a gay club in Orlando USA. 

Most of the people at the club & most of the dead are people of colour, most identified as LGBTIQ. Killed due to the homophobia of the gunman, Omar Mateen who himself frequented the club. 

I cannot help but notice how this great tragedy is not seen as a tragedy by many. Yet, when 12 people were killed in France starting with staff of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015, the world seemed to pause. Media covered the story from endless angles, including all the outpourings of support, marches etc.  So many people argued that anyone who did not say I am Charlie or Je suis Charlie (french) were being insensitive and uncaring.  Profile pics were changed, french flags were virtually-flown. A public display of solidarity and or compassion became the most important action to be taken. So much passion, all in the name of compassion and caring. 

Now, I am wondering did all the Charlie's loose their compassion and caring? Is that even possible? If this includes you, Please Do Try To Care. 

Homophobia killed the 50 and homophobia prevents feelings of compassion and care. Try to look beyond your fears, see the people whose lives have been lost, the pain and agony their families are feeling.  

I have many friends who are LGBTIQ. I cannot begin to speak on their behalf, but my heart knows that I need to speak, through listening to their stories I have some awareness of the hurt and rejection people suffer sometimes a whole lifetime.  Some having to live completely rejected by family, others slowly gaining acceptance in families and often even then not being able to reveal themselves fully to their families. We have communities where it is acceptable to sexually assault black lesbians.  All of this happens because homophobia is not challenged because the lives of LGBTIQ persons are not fully valued.  

Stop the violence of making people invisible and into what is comfortable for you. Please pay attention to the Orlando 50, pay attention to people around you, in your family and community that are LGBTIQ - look at them, see them for who they are and accept them unconditionally. Love unconditionally, that is our true nature. 

LGBTIQ - Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transexual/Intersex/Queer.

let's tell our daughters that we love them and keep them safe

Millions of young women in South Africa, and around the world, have been feeling devalued for a long time. They are often denied a proper education or livelihood as they are easily told to stay home from school or not to work to assist the family by attending to very important family needs like caring for babies, elderly or disabled relatives.  Young girls who meet this fate are in fact engaged in unpaid carework. This burden of care is one that follows most women throughout their lives, always having to squeeze in their dreams while our male counterparts, brothers, husbands, sons are free to pursue their dreams through school and work - yes even when the work is hard labour. Many young women become wives, caring for their own parents and the parents of their partners including at times other elderly uncles and aunts. The opportunity to engage in the world and to discover oneself, and ones passion has too often escaped women and as we can see this begins at an early age.

The message is that women have particular functions and roles in society and these do not include the pursuit of excellence in arts, industry, community leadership or intellect. Boys can go to school, boys can go out in the world and make their mark, boys can sow wild oats.  Women are often undervalued as unpaid caregivers and for the purposes of sexual reproduction and as prey for sexual predators. In the process of this devaluing of girls and women, the voices of girls and women are silenced.

In more recent years, some of us have been able to escape this path although, we often find ourselves proceeding against the odds and when we excel, we may be damned for it. Remember when our beloved sister Caster Semenya performed so well, some saw fit to declare that she is not a woman, the arrogance of that situation deserves 1000 blogs.

One of the most significant implications of the gendered nature of society is that it gives men, even the hard labourer man, some economic independence and many women economic dependence. Our girls and young women witness and live this experience of patriarchy. They see that mothers stay with abusive husbands or partners because they do not have any money of their own. They see mothers who look the other way when their boyfriends are sleeping with their daughters because they "take care of us". Our young women, when found busy with sugar daddies are strongly criticised, ostracised and made to feel small yet we fail to understand what has led them to see this as an option to economic independence. They see their future reflected in the lives of their mothers and wonder is that my future too? They are trying to avoid that future and sadly, they are repeating the cycle.

Daily little girls, young women, mature women are being raped, trafficked, sexually exploited and murdered in our country and as a society we continue to uphold the values of a patriarchal society. We support institutions that continue to uphold the colonialist notions that some people are superior to others, and consider that white, male, heterosexual, european standard as supreme and right. So as I find myself being neither white, nor male, nor european, I guess I am wrong and less important on 3 strikes? Of course not, yet the world is telling us this. Our higher education institutions hardly reflect the rightness of all humanity whether black/pink/green, female/queer/homo/trans/a/sexual, african/indigenous.  Our higher education institutions continue to reinforce the gendered nature of society as it produces the captains of industry, advisers to political leaders and knowledgeable elite who do very little to change the lived experience of women and so continue to perpetuate a problem, whereas one expects higher education to be about finding solutions to the challenges faced by society.

We need to ask what it is that we do to contribute to the idea that girls and women do matter?

Let's start to raise our sons and daughters differently, let's check white privilege when it raises it's head, let's invite queer-homo-hetero-trans-sexuality into our homes and embrace it  all, let's accept our child, sister, brother for who they are.  Let's shine our Africanness, let's share the carework and let's tell and show our daughters that we love them and keep them safe! Then we will start to change the world!

Kuruman reflections

I am out in Kuruman, John Toale Gaetsewe District in the Northern Cape.  Yesterday was All Pay for child support grants. The payment of social grants in South Africa is commonly called All Pay.

It was evidenced by many people pushing trolleys up and down the street. Trolleys filled with large bags of sugar, maize, flour, cooking oil and rice.  Some peoples trolleys included some more items than that.  I was struck by the thought that this food possibly consumed all the money that people have and would not last a month; after all R330 is paid for one child.  This is very little and children have other needs.  A friend from this area told me that some of the young mothers waste this money on card gambling games on the streets, drinking and buying themselves nice things.  

This situation is not very different from one part of the country to the next. I wonder what will become of our future as a nation when we have so many people reliant on social grants, an ever increasing unemployment rate and limited development opportunities.  We are more preoccupied by media circus events, than by the need to alleviate poverty in our country.

It is these moments that return me to clarity of purpose, to recommit myself to the work of helping people to reconnect with themselves and rediscover their power and beauty.