I’m back as of Tuesday evening after a wonderful two days with Amma and a great and much needed vacation in Seattle.
The Fab Five (Ann, Tyco, Pat, Ryan and Roth on research) have done a terrific job covering the news, which I also read while I was away. I am deeply indebted to them for making a vacation possible.
When D’Arcy and I first visited Ammachi 20 years ago, there were just a few of us in a room and we could have her “darshan” (hugs, mantra recitation, etc.) as many times as we wished.
Now there are thousands in the hall, long, long lineups to see her. Our last darshan was at 4:30 a.m. and I believe Amma continued until around 7:00 a.m. from 7:00 p.m. the night before – never once getting up to visit the washroom or eat or drink anything. (She may have had some water; I’m not sure.) I don’t know if you can imagine the energy that must have taken and she does it day in and day out. I was worn out by 4:30 a.m. and she was as fresh as spring rain.
We visited all our favorite neighborhoods, had Trinidadian, Chinese, Indian, and all manner of other food and Belgian waffles with strawberries every morning, compliments of the hotel. Definitely pampered. Very refreshing.
I may be able to resume posting sometime early this morning or I may catch up on sleep and resume a little later. Either way, by the end of the day, there should be ample coverage up.
I’ll have a full report on Amma and avatars as soon as I can. I have a wheelbarrow full of email to answer. If I promised you I would do something after the retreat and then forget or for another reason failed to deliver, please just resend your email to me and I’ll pick up where I left off. In some cases, where a request is not something that falls within the province of the site, I may not respond this one time, simply because of the volume of unanswered mail.
What a pleasant surprise it was meeting Kristin at the retreat. Kristen, you’re only the second reader I’ve ever met in person (Sharon is the other)!
Namaste and back online after a big sleep,
Steve