Long Walks On Leafy Streets

4/5/2015 Zilker Park, Austin, TX
The past week has been especially difficult. Taking care of my parents and preparing for the arrival of our baby boy combined with the home renovation activities have left little time for research, teaching or other regular activities let alone time for meditation or hiking. We also had a big Hindu ceremony to prepare and bless Nicole for the birth, on Sunday. Although only immediate family was involved it still entailed a good amount of effort. In the middle of that I got a call from the lady who is renting our previous home saying that the toilet and tub are blocked. So after the ceremony I had to go there and stay until the plumber had finished removing the blockage.

Also as mentioned in the previous post, we are currently rebuilding our roof, replacing the roof mounted AC unit and then once those are completed, putting solar panels on the roof.
These three things are better done together because doing any one of them requires working on the other two. In the middle of the roof plus AC work we ran into some unexpected problems. So it had to be suspended for a couple of days during which time it rained. Even though they had covered it with a tarpaulin sheet the water found its way inside and damaged part of our ceiling. I spent a good part of those two days cleaning up dirt that fell through the AC ducts, mopping up water that dropped through the ceiling and so on.

Often I found myself weak and on the verge of falling sick owing to not eating or sleeping properly. It was difficult to maintain equanimity when the body was in that condition. I found myself feeling diffident and irritable. Nevertheless whatever meditation I was able to do, helped. I must say I managed to get through all the tasks that I needed to do and stayed more or less calm through it all in spite of the fatigue and general feeling of discomfort.

I did manage to do one environment related thing this week. I attended a screening of the movie “The E-Waste tragedy” at the Goethe Institute. This movie by a German director (who talked to us after the screening) was a real eye opener. It showed the extent of the problem of electronic waste in countries in Africa and Asia, especially China. The greed of unscrupulous waste dealers is resulting in terrible environmental pollution as well as harming the poor families who work on retrieving rare metals from the various cell-phones, laptops, computers and televisions discarded in the western countries. The worst scene in the movie involved children swimming in waters turned black by all the toxic material released from recycling and burning these devices. It is something we all need to be very aware of. Each one of us that uses electronic devices ought to be extremely careful about how much we buy and how we discard them. Even if sent to proper recycling centers many of them are sold under the table to black market dealers who then ship them clandestinely in containers across the oceans, sometime just dumping them into the ocean if alert authorities and NGOs (mainly Greenpeace) try to stop them. So the best solution is to use as little as possible and repair and reuse as much as possible.

By Thursday somehow the roof work was finished. Now the AC guys have to come and connect the new machine that has already been positioned on the roof, to the house, using new ducts. But it felt good to look at the new roof that has been finished in a professional way. The previous roof was constructed shoddily and I had to patch it periodically to stop water from leaking through. It is a relief to know that we don’t have to worry about water coming through when it rains. I was also fortunate to watch at close quarters a group of people, many of them from Latin America, who seem to have an unlimited amount of energy and enthusiasm for their work.

Last night was the first time I got a really good night’s sleep. This afternoon was quite pleasant. Although a cold wind was blowing steadily it was sunny and warm enough. I had to walk to the CVS near the Takoma metro station to get some printer paper. I really enjoyed that walk. Crocuses and daffodils were out on many front yards and cherry blossoms here and there enlivened the streets. Next week should be the peak time for the famous cherry blossoms at the tidal basin.

Going through all these things this week has helped me in many ways. It has taught me how to deal with difficult situations even when I am not feeling at my best. It has taught me how to avoid my constant pushing forward and take things as they come, basically treating life as a marathon and not a sprint. The best way to live is to live each moment for its own sake, and not worry about how much we have done or how we are going to accomplish the things that we need to. I try to enjoy the quiet moments, such as when walking to the store, waiting for the bus or riding the subway or biking somewhere or going for a run as much as I can because I know life will be different from now on. I take these moments to slow myself down and take a deep breath and bring myself back to what is true and important, which is love and peace within oneself.

Directory Previous