It's sort of funny--the way things come back to you.
It was about twenty years ago that my mom brought home this Hare Krishna book from the airport. I remember looking through it and loving the pictures. All the times that she cleaned out her book stash, I wouldn't let her toss it or donate it, or whatever it was she did with her books then.
Then I went off to college, and that book has left her well organized library and been replaced with lots of Patricia Cromwell, Philippa Gregory, Jodi Piccoult, and so on.
Well, last night we went to a celebration of Diwali and guess what book I was given to look through? The very same!
We sang Hare Krishna and we made wishes as we danced around the hill someone made with ten Krishnas on it making wishes and offering them up to Krishna.
This was our second time going to a service and it's really amazing. Everyone chants and sings and dances in beautiful clothes and the kids VOLUNTARILY will read paragraphs from stories from the Bhagavad Gita along with adults. Then there's an amazing spread that everyone is welcome to. It was really fantastic.
I didn't take pictures because I thought it would be disrespectful, especially since Monkey ripped some posters off the wall, which I missed because Goose was having a meltdown and I was trying to calm her.
Luckily boys under five are little gods and can do no wrong, so with the help of some tape things were kosher. So the agnostic party of three payed our respects and honored our friends and took off through the shady side of Sacramento--bellies full and singing the hypnotic Hare Krishna song.
Goose said she wished for Hugs (doable), Kisses (doable), and a Carousel/Merry-Go-Round (not so much). I wished for my friend who invited us to find a job, one where he doesn't have to go elsewhere in the world away from his family. And of course, what I always wish for, my kids to be happy.
BTW, I think it's pretty wonderful that Obama kept up Bush's tradition of lighting Diyas at Diwali, though Obama was actually present for it, unlike Bush.
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