Wednesday 18 April 2018

Friday, April 13th, 2018

Toronto, Ontario

On This Day

I never in my life held any superstitious attitudes toward Friday the 13th. However, in a Vedic context, when it is said by some astrological authority that one is under the influence of the dark planets, Rahu and Ketu, I take it a little more seriously.  I personally survived a period of my life, said to be a Rahu period.  It wasn’t nice and I won’t go into minute detail.  What is important was how I approached this negative period.  I started a long walk to the distance of 8,000-plus kilometres on Canadian soil.

That was in 1996.  I also took to a lot of chanting.  Many days, it was 64 rounds on the japabeads.  The combination of walking, chanting and some speaking opportunities/engagements kept me going.

It was this afternoon that I took a mini-walk with Dave, not to counteract any ill omens of bad fortune Friday the 13thmight bring—I already explained my position on this.  Dave and I strolled along some of the laneways of the posh shops of Yorkville, just for a break from what we were both doing.  Trying to bond a bit might be what we were trying to do.

Dave serves food at Govinda’s and does some of the dishes when needed.  I was administratively engaged.  So we walked and talked.  No chanting was done, but that’s okay.  The friendship building is what was important.

It was Dave’s idea to go for this first walk.  “I’ll take up your offer on it,” he told me.

“Really, when did I ask for the walk?” I hadn’t remembered I had done so.

“You wrote the invite to walk, on a card, and I've been keeping that card.”

“When did I leave you the card?” I asked.

“About five years ago,” he responded.

May the Source be with you!
3 km

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