City Archives, Toronto
Bathing in the Sun
We were bathing in the sun,
sitting in a circle under a maple tree. How perfect does that sound? Moreover
we were singing with drum, hand symbols, tambourine and at her Majesty’s park,
called Queen’s Park, when a young man with the brightest smile exceeded all
this positivity. He waved his hand. So did we. We were just about to pack up
and terminate the kirtan chanting. That means gathering the musical
instruments, our yoga mats and ourselves but meeting Mr. Optimist dragged out
that process.
“How’s it going?” asked Brhat,
our Bhakti Academy coordinator.
“Greet!” replied the young man.
“Where are you from?” I asked.
“From Detroit but I work here
(Toronto).”
Then I began to say, “Motortown.”
He loved it when I said that. “Your city has a chance to spring back and be the
beacon of the world, like it once was.”
“Yeah, through urban farming. And
a lot of artists are moving back into the once inner city.” Naturally I was
reflecting on how that was our guru’s dream. Prabhupada was for self
sufficiency, such as growing your own food.
Meeting our new-made friend,
whose name I shamefully forgot, made our day. He went away with a Gita,
which Kunti handed to him and, of course, an invitation to our temple ashram
and restaurant.
Our chanting under the tree
wasn’t particularly strong today, I felt, but connecting with Mr. Optimist
lifted our spirits like anything. After all, the foundation of life is
happiness through service.
From the tree I paid a visit to
the city archives to research any foundational floor plans and pics of our
historic temple building. I discovered stuff.
May the source be with you!
6 km
No comments:
Post a Comment