Saturday, October 20, 2007

A Tribute To My Traveling Companion---India Trip---Sept./Oct. 2007

I am home from India. I got home around 8:30 p.m., Central Standard Time, Monday, October 15, 2007 as scheduled. I am back in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA, feeling spoiled and enjoying every minute of it. I appreciate being born an American more each time that I visit India and all of its hardships.

In this first article about my trip, I want to tell you about my traveling buddy. I could not have asked for a better traveling companion than my friend Sherryl. You met Sherryl very briefly in my article The Most Influencial Person---#5---Best Friends.

Before I made this trip, I knew that Sherryl is a great healer. I tell her that a lot. She is very humble about her healing abilities. Sherryl is my Reiki teacher. I have taken Level I and II from her and plan in the next few years to take Levels III, IV, and V from her and also become a Reiki Master like she is. Sherryl has incredible power in her hands. She is also an extremely caring person.

Sherryl sees things that I miss. She sees auras and has wonderfully detailed dreams most nights. She is a deeply spiritual person.

One day while we were walking through the ashram, she pointed out an older Indian lady who was having problems getting her walker down the stairs. Sherryl and I both rushed over to help the lady down the last few stairs. I happened to get there a little ahead of Sherryl. I moved the walker down the last two stairs and offered my hand to the lady. She thanked me and told us that she had been praying to Swami that he would send help to her. I told her that it was my friend Sherryl who saw her. I would have walked by and never seen her if not for Sherryl pointing her out to me. Because of my illness, I was more focused inward than usual and did not even see that the lady needed help.

I am writing this article to say, Thank You Sherryl for being such a good friend and for taking care of me when I was too sick to take care of myself. You being there with me made the trip much easier when I was too sick to cope on my own. Thank You Swami for having Sherryl come with me.

Sherryl and I have known each other since we met in a meditation class sometime in 1997. Each of our three trips have bought us closer together as friends.

On the second or third day in the ashram at Puttiparthi, I got sick with the worst sinus infection and cough that I have ever had. Not only my head and face hurt but my top teeth were very sore from the infection. I have never had my teeth hurt with a sinus infection. I usually get at least one sinus infection a year so I knew what it was that was wrong with me. My ears were also stopped up, especially the left one which is still filled with fluid.

Another story will be about the healing lessons that I received during my almost sleepless nights with this illness. I coughed really hard during the day and more so at night when I would try to go to sleep. The only way that Sherryl got any sleep was by using ear plugs and taking sleeping pills. I still managed to wake her up a few times when the coughing was especially bad. The last three nights in the ashram, I tried sleeping partially sitting up. It didn't make much difference. I still coughed. Another friend bought me cough medicine which didn't help either.

Before this trip, for several months, I have been experiencing pain across my back where my kidneys are. Sherryl and I both did Reiki on each other's kidneys three to four times during our stay in the ashram.

One evening, my chest started hurting with the coughs. Sherryl asked if I wanted her to cup her hands and beat on my back. I told her if she thought it would help, then yes. She would cup her hands and hit on both sides of the spinal cord but not on the spinal cord itself. She hit pretty hard. The cough did not turn into bronchitis. My chest quit hurting when I coughed. She did this about four times during the trip.

There were three or four different days that I didn't have the energy to leave our room. Sherryl kept me company on the two worst days. She bought me food and water when we were out. I lost over 10 pounds during this trip.

Sherryl, in addition to being a Reiki Master from the Usui Shiki Ryoho school, is a licensed massage therapist, and is trained to do Cranio-Sacral healing work. I will have to ask Sherryl to explain to me exactly what Cranio-Sacral work consists of. I know she works on my head and moves my neck very gently and it feels wonderful. I always feel better later. I know some Chiropractors do Cranio-Sacral work in their practices. Most do not.

Sherryl and I were in what felt like total harmony on this trip. We had a reading done for each of us by an Indian Astrologer who said we were soul mates and have many past lives together. At one point during our stay in the ashram, Sherryl asked me if I was aware that we were reading each other's thoughts and finishing each other's sentences. I wasn't aware of it. I was so sick that I don't think that I was aware of much of anything outside of my own body and mind.

Is this our last trip to India together? If you had asked me when I was so sick, I would have said that I was never going back to India. When I shared that with Sherryl, she said she knew that was what I was thinking. According to Sherryl and her dreams, we are going at least two more times. The next trip is scheduled for three years from now. She dreamed this trip into reality. I didn't. When she told me about the dream, I told her if it was supposed to happen, Swami would work out the details. He did and we went. If he calls, we will go again.

According to the Indian Astrologer, we have many more trips to come in the future. He told me that I would actually live there semi-permanently in the future with just family visits to the states. I smiled and thought, "Only if Swami knows something that I don't." It is in Swami's hands. If he plans it, it will happen.

Again, Thank you, Sherryl for the wonderful care that you took of me while I was sick. Without you, this trip would have been much worse. I hate being sick away from home. And, yes, I know that and the healing lessons that I learned are the reason that I attracted the whole illness. It is good to be home.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Patricia,


It seems you enjoyed your trip despite what happened. Intense times can be unpleasant sometimes, but ultimately they keep you going.

Patricia Singleton said...

Vitor, you are so right. All of my lessons this trip were about healing. I had to get sick for the lessons to be presented. More about those lessons in an upcoming article. I keep saying that I had an awful/wonderful trip and it was both. The wonderful outweighed the awful. Now that the awful is out of the way, I can write about the wonderful.

River of Karma said...

Hi Patricia,
Welcome back.

You know it's interesting. You seem to learn something new every time. While I'm sure you would have liked to enjoy India more, but as the comment above said, you learn from these things.

Plus Malaysia is alot more closer to India than the US, but you know, something will happen. Oh well, when its time.

And hey, we're both Energy Healers in training. Well, me mostly. Plus I thought Reiki was only 3 lvl. 5 Levels?

Patricia Singleton said...

River, thanks for the welcome back. Levels 3-5 cost more and you learn to teach it yourself as well as have more energy flowing through your hands. I can definitely call myself an energy healer in training. Soon, I will talk about that part of my journey. Yes, each trip has been full of new lessons. Swami says we can stay home and worship "the God of our choice." He says we don't have to come to India. I do. I would not learn these lessons at home when I am too focused on every day efforts of living. These are Spiritual Retreats for me where I can become almost totally focused on the spiritual aspects of my life for a short, usually intense period of time. I will be processing this trip for awhile. I am now on a new turn in the road because of what I learned on this trip. Have a glorious day.

Paritosh Uttam said...

Hi Patricia,

Good to hear from you again, though I am sorry to hear you fell sick when in India. Did you stay in the ashram all the while, or did you go out too?

Yes, you are right, in India, religion is about the masses. The kind of crowds they show on TV is scary even to me. You are wise in not being a part of such huge crowds. So many stampedes and deaths have happened in India, but nothing seems to deter people.

Looking forward to read more of your experiences on this trip.

Oh by the way, I am in the US right now on a business trip (in the bay area near San Francisco). Came here on 20th, but still have a bad jetlag. Have been up since 2 am this morning :-(

regards,
Paritosh.

Patricia Singleton said...

Paritosh, have a safe and profitable trip in the US. I have never been to California. It is a world away from Arkansas, in so many ways.

My friend, when I told her about your concern in the previous comment about the stampeding crowds, reminding me that we were in a mini-stampede one day when we tried to retrieve our shoes after darshan. We did not put our shoes in that spot again. We got trapped and could not move forward or backward until the crowd did. That was frightening and we got out of it safely. We chose a place far away from the crowds to leave our shoes after that.

Anonymous said...

Hey Patricia,
It's amazing how many lessons there are to be learned if only we are open to them. You're probably right. Your cold was meant to happen while you were on this trip. Having Sherryl with you probably gave you an even greater appreciation for her love. I hope you post a photo or two, so we can see what you saw.
Karl

Patricia Singleton said...

Karl, partly because I was sick but also security in the ashram was much strictly than our trip in 1999, I didn't take very many pictures. The ones that I did take were mostly out of the ashram. I still haven't gotten them developed yet. Plus, I still don't know how to post pictures on my blog. I really should get busy and figure out how to do that. For now, I will just have to use words to paint my pictures.

Marj aka Thriver said...

I'm so glad you've found such a wonderful friend. Welcome back.

I'm starting up THE BLOG CARNIVAL AGAINST CHILD ABUSE again--it's had a few-month hiatus. Would you consider submitting one of your excellent posts?

Paritosh Uttam said...

Thanks for the wishes. You know, I was planning a visit to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon while I am here. And then I thought it was funny/ironical that you go all the way to India in your spiritual quest, and I come from India and will make a trip to the gambling dens of Vegas! (Ok I am exaggerating... I am more interested in the Grand Canyon than the casinos).

Oh right, I have to send you information about Swami Vivekananda. Did you know there was another revered saint Sai Baba in India? He is known as the Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Patricia Singleton said...

Marj, thanks for the welcome back. Yes, I will submit one of my articles. Thanks for asking.

Patricia Singleton said...

Paritosh, the Grand Canyon is well worth the visit. My family and I visited there a few years ago. I would love to go back some day. My grandchildren were little and tired easily at the time so we didn't spend as much time as I would have liked. Also, the southern rim is supposed to be the most beautiful. Of course, we came in from the north at the time.

I bought a book on Shirdi Sai Baba. He was the first of 3 Sai Babas with Sathya Sai Baba being the second. The 3rd incarnation will be Prema Sai Baba. I look forward to finding out more about Shirdi Sai as I read the book that I bought at the ashram.

Patricia Singleton said...

Paritosh, I asked a friend about Swami Vivekananda when I was at the ashram. I knew that I had heard a story about him but could not remember. She reminded me that Vivekananda is supposed to have already reincarnated and is supposed to have visited Satha Sai Baba at the ashram. At the time, Sai Baba recognised him as Vivekananada but said that the present incarnation had no idea yet as to who he had been in his past life as Vivekananda.

Patricia Singleton said...

Nneka over at Balanced Life Center has extended a Season of Gratitude challenge for blogging to send her articles on gratitude. I just submitted this one. At this point, I don't know if it has been accepted or not but I still wanted to send my readers to her site and this challenge if you would like to write a story on gratitude and submit it to her at http://www.balancedlifecenter.com/272-2007-season-of-gratitude-invitation/ Please check out her site. I enjoy reading her articles very much.

Paritosh Uttam said...

Hi Patricia,

Last weekend I went to Las Vegas and to the Grand Canyon from there in a tour bus. Vegas is truly sin city! I don't think I have ever seen another place that is so sincerely dedicated to provide worldly pleasures. It sure was a different experience for me.

The Grand Canyon was awesome as you had said it would be. The weather was great. I had gone to the south rim, and the views were simply breathtaking.

I will be flying back to India this Friday.

regards,
Paritosh.

Patricia Singleton said...

Paritosh, glad you enjoyed the Grand Canyon. Have a safe trip home.