A Changing Lens: Christmas in India

Photo by Lee Schneider

I took a foot bath in the holy Ganges River today — Christmas Day 2008! Just a few days before - what looked like could possibly be an unsatisfying and slightly depressing Christmas – turned into a day filled with gifts.

I arrived in India three days ago to find an India that felt tough, unclean and unnerving. I have been to India two times before, but this time for some reason India felt dirtier, noisier and more crowded. This time around I was bringing my fiance and wanted to show him an India that was sacred, special and beautiful. Unfortunately within our first couple of days we were not encountering much of that.

Battened down in our hotel on the second day we decided we needed to find a way to turn our trip around. We traveled all this way and knew our trip had the potential of much more. Having turned to some particular goddesses over the past year for assistance, guidance and inspiration, I decided to say a prayer to Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of beauty and prosperity. I asked her for assistance to help us see beauty in the little things — to see beauty within the clutter and beyond the cow dung.

On the same day as my prayer we found a new room in a hotel well within our price range with a gorgeous view of the Ganges. Hindu chants lofted up to the balcony giving us a feeling of having our own movie soundtrack to our India experience. Right next door we met a wonderfully talented and distinguished music teacher who could teach me how to play traditional Indian music on the harmonium. And across from our new locale, we found a clean, warm and peaceful yoga studio sitting practically on top of the sacred Ganges. This was good!

So I ask myself, was it my prayer to Lakshmi that inspired all of these good things to happen? Is there a goddess who can really make beautiful things appear in one’s life? Or was it simply my intention and willingness to shift my lens to see beauty?  Ahhhhh…and to top it off of our hotel brought us a beautiful bouquet of flowers to wish us a merry christmas.

When you are faced with a situation that is less than desirable what do you do? How do you handle difficulty?

Mother India

I am packing for my trip to India! I am leaving in a few days. This is not just any ordinary trip. This is a trip to get married!

My fiancé and I met two years ago on a New Year’s yoga retreat here in California. We felt it only appropriate to have our special wedding day this New Year’s in yoga’s birthplace, India.

I have been a big fan of India for many years. I spent six months there a decade ago and just when I thought it was a trip of a lifetime and would be many years before I returned, I ended up there two years later with my best friend at the turn of the millennium.  Here I am, now eight years later, packing my wedding dress for my return to the beautiful motherland of India.

I call India “Mother India” (as I think many people do) because it has the nurturing aspects of a mom. It cradles, it hugs and smiles with deep love. On the other side it can present challenging realities of the world that we have to find a way to cope with.

I have heard many people say that they are fascinated with India, but are too scared to go. Scared of the poverty, scared of the possibility of getting sick, and scared of the unknown. Well, I have to agree that India is not for the faint of heart. What it is however is a place for discovery, unfolding and magic.

I look forward to sharing some of the magic with you in these coming weeks!

Sacred Gift-Giving

As the holidays approach, it is definitely that time of year for gift-giving. This is one of those times that I love and also go crazy over when I can’t find the right gift! I always want to get my loved ones the “perfect” gift, but sometimes I am stumped.

I find it particularly difficult to shop for the gentlemen in my life – like my dad, brothers, and nephews. My fiancé, that’s no problem. He is a yogi, like me. And since I am with him day in and day out, I am attuned to what would be a great gift for him. But what about my family members who live across the country and who I have been giving gifts to for decades. Will I be able to think of something new? Can I use my creativity in any way? What is it that they really want? All these questions spinning around and what I realize is that what’s most important is that the gift is meaningful.

There is a new trend happening all around us as I am sure you are aware called Green Gift Giving. “Have a Green Christmas!” “Go Green Christmas!” “Give Great Green Gifts!” and other green slogans are permeating our tv commercials, magazine ads, newspaper circulars, and store window displays. But what does all of this actually mean? Is giving a green gift better than giving a gift that is not green?

Tommy Rosen, Founder of the EcoGift Festival based in Santa Monica, CA, describes green gifts as those products coming from companies that don’t plunder the earth and have environmental sustainability in mind. He and a team of others created the EcoGift Festival to provide a solution to the environmental waste associated with holiday shopping and provide people with an uplifting experience around holiday gift-giving. You can check out the EcoGift Festival this weekend if you are in the Los Angeles area. It takes place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am-8pm at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Main Street. Even if you have done all of your shopping, it will be a fun, holiday-spirit celebration! There will be live music (15 bands!), organic food and inspiring speakers. Arianna Huffington, Linda Loudermilk and Gurmukh will be speaking to name a few. I’ll be there (of course!) — vending Lotus Blossom Style (booth 407). They’ll be great prices, great people and great fun!

Through some investigation I am starting to see “green gift-giving” as a code phrase for not only products that produce less waste and reduce impact on Mother Earth, but also for thoughtful gestures and ideas that include and go beyond environmental savvy-ness. I read recently in an article called “Shifting Your Gifting” about a woman who received a wonderfully creative gift. She said that during a particularly difficult time in her life a friend gifted her a calling card, and a “free pass” for several hours of late night uninterrupted listening to her vent about her ex. She said it was the perfect gift because it showed how much her friend really “got” her.

After some thought, I am thinking that our gifts this season don’t necessarily need to be “green” to be super gifts. If they are – FABULOUS!! If they are not, I think the important question to ask is – how will this gift add value to the recipient’s life?

What about you? What is your gift-giving philosophy?

Crossing the Boundary

As many writers know, writing can be painful but also one of the greatest joys!

Recently I was presented with a challenge of someone responding with anger and rage to words that I had written in a blog. The email I received from that individual was laced with what seemed like venomous intention. This took me aback. I read and re-read my blog to see what I had said that would call for such a response and I was stumped. The blog obviously triggered something deep inside of that person that may or may not have had anything to do with me. But what was clear (after sharing the response with several people) was that the response was disproportionate to what I wrote and the words directed to me were totally out of line. This left me with some questions.

I have been writing on and off for years. I have worked as a reporter, an editor, a researcher and a writer. Since my college years I have dreamed of being a writer (a journalist moreso) and telling the stories of the world. This early writing dream eventually expanded into wanting to write my own novel, my own screenplay and my own songs. What held me back over and over from getting serious about this and taking my writing to the next level was the fear of writing from a personal place and others judging me. In other words – I had a fear of being exposed.

So here I am almost two decades later from the initial spark of the writing dream and I was being confronted with what I feared most – using my voice and in return getting a negative response. In one moment I felt on the edge of being set back 20 years. In the next moment, I saw that this was coming to me as a graceful challenge to see how much I was really ready to claim my voice.

As I move forward, I am contemplating these questions…“What do I do about people who respond negatively to what I write?…Do I simply not respond so as not to engage them? Or, as a blogger, is it my place to respond to them? And… is it really okay for someone to speak to me in a disrespectful and rage-filled manner and not address it? What will be my response when someone crosses my boundary?”

What is your response when someone crosses your boundary?