Tuesday, June 11th, 2013

Sitting Eagle

Dominion City, Manitoba

"Sitting Eagle" is the name of the first person to talk to me today. He was driving his daughter to school and waited extra long at the juncture of the road before turning. Obviously he was curious about what I'm doing.

"You don't see too many people walking on the highway these days," he said, "what to speak of seeing..."

"I'm a monk," I said, "a Krishna monk, and I'm doing this walk across Canada to promote spiritual awareness..."

Sitting Eagle and his daughter are of aboriginal descent. And they were fascinated to listen. Then I met Ken, also a first nations person who is a self employed plummer. He offered a ride and I told him how I couldn't take a ride. The rest of the dialogue was easy as I segued into inviting him to a kind of powwow, actually a kirtan that we conduct every Wednesday and Sunday nights in Winnipeg.

An elderly couple also stopped to offer a lift. They were blown away by the walking mission. When I said it was a pilgrimage, that resonated with them. When he said he was of French origin, while she was English, I remarked sarcastically, "Those are two groups that historically always got along." They chuckled. And that would be a great day when we can - all get along.

There were a number of other interactions along this very flat terrain in prairie land. The people are not flat in the least personality wise, they were really nice and sweet.

To seal the day, I spent the time in kirtan, our brand of powwow, and then rested in Doug's living room, who leaves his TV on. It remained like that all night. I couldn't find the remote to turn it off and Doug was fast asleep. Nevertheless, I slept like a baby in the company of newscasters. One of them fortunately woke me up at the precise time desired. Thank you for the service.

27 KM