Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

Sussex, New Brunswick

Back In Time

I had proposed to my three companion monks that we visit King's Landing, one of those historic pioneer villages where you step back in time, and see how folks of a European extract lived in the New World.  It wasn't such a hard sell.  "It will be educational, a cultural experience and in a spiritual context, we'll see people in period costume living the more simple life with organic food to depend on and a lifestyle of interdependence—all much like what Prabhupada, our guru, wanted for us."  Such was my pitch.  We moved back to about 1820, the time of the Loyalist migration.

King's Landing is a place I ventured to about twelve years ago with Burlington family, Jagannath and Saci, and is a mere twenty-five minutes from Fredericton.  We loved it.  And from this morning to early afternoon, our team of monks also relished it, and if there had been any apprehension about my proposal, it was clearly removed.  The boys didn't want to leave.  We covered a quarter of the place but reaped the benefit of becoming Grade Ones in the one-room school with our widowed teacher, and spending quality time with the clerk at the General Store, as well as watching Mrs. Valentine prepare her dish of squash.  She blessed us with giving us our choice of veg, a pick-your-own from the garden.  So we secured a whopper of a zucchini.

Another dip in Lake Killarney was a plus to our health regimen.  "It's the first time I swam in years," said Samuel. That was hard to believe.

Our evening output was a presentation in Sussex at a dance studio.  In the mix of this presentation, I suggested we learn a Sanskrit verse, 2.14 from the GIta, so we did, but the dance to our kirtanreigned supreme.

I must also mention that the Blacksmith at King's Landing was a charmer.  It reminded me of the adage, "Strike while the iron's hot!” meaning don't lose an opportunity.

May the Source be with you!

6 km