Hello Italy!
Helsinki, Finland
Brian and Leana were cool companions to have as passengers. Leane considers herself on eclectic person while Brian is an avowed Buddhist. His llama has him chanting on beads which he was doing while I did the same with my 108 beaded mala. I realised there was going to be little or no time to walk except for airport corridors, which I won’t include in my tallying process.
For fun the couple was carrying with them a figurine in the form of a plastic hollow Iron Man. Brian snapped his camera to photograph Iron Man in his seat-belt strapped down in between Leana and myself on the seat. He has been travelling with the couple for sometime. The photos are forwarded to friends for a laugh.
“Do you feed him as well?” (Laughter)
I then ventured to talking about shilas (ancient worshipable stones representing Vishnu) and how travelling monks carry one or two with them wherever they go. They are treated as if God, they provide companionship and are a way to remember the Divine. I also explained about the three large images of Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra, wooden icons, carried by chariots resembling temples and how they are pulled manually through the love of their devotees.
Brian and Leana were fascinated. I invited them to the annual Festival of Chariots which is upcoming in July. (July 17th).
Throughout the flight when we were not dosing we compared notes over the different forms of spiritual expressions we were exposed to such as Brian’s Dutch Reform background, Leana’s Viking roots, my Dutch Roman Catholicism and where we are now. This sharing was absolutely fascinating.
We parted at Helsinki. I flew on to Milano. I noticed northern Europeans to be quiet in Helsinki and the more I was moving toward Italy the more outgoing people become.
Hello, Italy, I’m here for a while!
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