The Deities were offered a new dress today for the appearance day of Srila Guru Maharaja. It's olive green and yellow-gold chinese silk. Rich and wonderful. There's a little red trim just to set it off. i didn't name this outfit, Guru Maharaja himself did. One evening some of the folks were playing scrabble with "devotional words". One of them spelled out "die to live". That is one of Srila Guru Maharaja's original sutras. Then some one not playing the game saw the board and asked "what's a diet olive?" It was too much, too perfect. That's how i know he picked the name himself. The name is "diet olive".
Several pedalers spoke or waved today. There is a sign that says one phase of the construction will be completed by the end of the month. "That's two more weeks!" my mind screams at me. i just keep on pedaling. One of the folks pedaled off asking me how long it would take to get up the road from the asrama and back down near a country store and get back to the asrama. He later told me it wasn't as long as he remembered. Up a hill past a Catholic retreat down the steep hill where he had to ride his brakes. Then past the coffee shop and the vikrama yoga center. Another hill past a trailor park through a stop light and back to the road to the asrama. Takes longer to write then it does to pedal it.
There i was here "in the ninth" dressing them in the same night dress that they were offered five years ago on this night. A little anniversary celebration. A taste of dejavu all over again.