Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Quite Amazed!

Narcisse, Manitoba

Today I took to some priestly duties and some that might be regarded as more secular. It’s a matter of opinion, I suppose. Any activity can be transcendentalized even if appearing mundane depending on the intent behind it.

I had covered a good 7 kilometers in the morning on foot in northwestern Ontario before a flight to Manitoba. The walking is always a combined physical and spiritual activity. You walk and chant simultaneously. You exercise and keep from rusting the machinery in order to continue the devotional services for humanity.

Perhaps questionable was the mid-day drive to Narcisse, Manitoba, a place I ventured to last year at this time. What would a swami have to do with a pit of snakes and a trip to the vicinity of the home of 70,000 red-sided garter snakes? Well, let’s say it was a bit selfish. I know internally my wonder about the Creator’s ways became enhanced. To see hundreds upon hundreds of these creatures clustered about dancing with one another slithering in happy entanglement is an awesome sight to see as this place is recognized as the world’s largest convergence of these reptiles in the world. It’s not a zoo here but a natural habitat of a combined four dens that sees an exodus of snake migration after a winter’s hibernation when mating and feeding time begins. During migration neighbors have fumed. Imagine finding a snake in your bed? That has happened. One person found one in the toaster. I was wowed to see this play of nature. My amazement at what He does was indeed enhanced.

In the evening it was a visit to the St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg to see a newborn baby and parents. The child was struggling to survive and Mom was assisted with a caesarean cut with a blood transfusion to follow. The concerned father, who was next to his wife with their first child is hopeful and optimistic about everything and the modified blessing ceremony we conducted in the intensive care unit was just what the parents wanted.

Before nightfall a similar home blessing mainly comprised of mantra power also got squeezed in at the apartment of a member of the Winnipeg community. Hare Krishna!

10 KM