In which I finally get around to it. Sort of.

Last summer I started writing a post about seeing Amma, my guru, and I promised to finish it and publish it. I never did. I think I still have a draft saved, but it’s one of those things that must be written immediately – before the feeling’s gone.

Embedded below is the trailer for a movie about Amma’s 50th birthday celebration, which was celebrated by two million devotees in southern India a few years ago. (Mother hugged nearly fifty thousand people in a marathon 21-hour sitting.) I suppose the trailer says well enough what I would have said in that never-finished post, things about love, compassion, stillness of mind, and the existence of suffering.

I bring Mother up because She will be back in the States in just four days, stopping first at Her ashram in Cali and then going to Michigan; it’s Her usual North American winter tour. I’ve had the grace to see Her in Michigan in November once or twice, but generally I only manage to see Her once a year.

I wish that I could see Her next week, but of course I haven’t got the money to travel, take time off from work. I’ll have to wait until the summer tour, wait until I can see Her in Seattle next year. I suppose the longing is good for me.

I met Her for the first time in Seattle, actually. She’ll probably raise Her eyebrows at me and grin, when I show up for darshan in Seattle instead of Iowa or Chicago. Last summer, She pulled me back into Her lap a couple of times and kissed me. I love Her so.

Someday I’ll have to get down to San Ramon. Even when I lived in nearby San Francisco, I never did make it to the ashram. If they allowed dogs I’d probably live there right now, and then I’d be getting to see my Mother next week!

om amriteswaryenamaha