Sharani

Hope is a dress that my mother once wore
A fiddle tune I heard that has no words
Hope is the one thing we have never lost…
-Susan McKeown River (song lyrics excerpt).

River by Irish-born Celtic musician Susan McKeown is a real favorite in my music library. While I enjoy the melody, I fell in love with this song by McKeown even more for the phrase, “Hope is a dress my mother once wore. A fiddle tune I heard that has no words.” I am thinking of these poetic song lyrics about hope and its importance right now now as I observe the whirlwind of change and uncertainty unfolding in America with reverberations felt around the world.

Along with the volatile world events, the October 11th one-year anniversary of my spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy’s passing is fast approaching - called Mahasamadhi in the case of an illumined spiritual master leaving the body. Thus, my heart is heavy and full of concern — whether for the ravages of hurricanes, financial turmoil or the closeness of memories from memorial activities for Sri Chinmoy one year ago. Given all that is happening, I feel that blogging right now about my latest fun discovery (the Animal Clock in Central Park for instance) from within my own little universe doesn’t quite work.

Odd is it for me that even as I bear witness to tremendous upheaval and sad memories, I find myself inwardly buoyant. Meditation like an anchor is holding me fast in its arms. Recently my regular travels to New York to meditate with other members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre leave me immersed in deeper and deeper peace, serenity and faith.

Back home I even find that in spite of a storm of ongoing uncertainty for the fate of public libraries in Massachusetts (my chosen profession for over 20 years), I am greeted by sweet, encouraging dreams when I sleep at night. In the dream world, I encounter healing advice, support and teaching.

I can only surmise that my spiritual outlook is ringing like a bell with the message that the true meaning of life is not found in outer prosperity or material things but rather in union of our soul with God. And the clapper inside that bell is none other than hope.

Hope is more important than ever when times are troubled. The Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus gives “trust, confidence, dependence, faith, reliance and stock” as synonyms for the word hope. Sri Chinmoy placed abundant importance on the role of hope in his philosophy and teachings. In an interview with journalist Joel Martin, Sri Chinmoy stated,

He who treasures hope can make progress…
without hope we cannot even budge an inch…
Is there any human being who can live on
earth without hope?
-Sri Chinmoy

I will be concentrating on hope through this stormy weather, humming that fiddle tune that has no words and thinking of more lyrics from Susan KcKeown’s River song:

Hoe is a river that flows from these stone walls
into an ocean we have never seen…

Related Resources:

• Poems and Pages on Hope from Poetseers.org
• Sri Chinmoy’s Mahasamadhi

Listen to the song:

River - Susan Mckeown

If Kennedy is a Berliner, Ich bin ein Heidelberger. If you have never been to Heidelberg, you are missing a great travel destination. For this American tourist, it offers quintessential historic and beautiful scenery in the Old Town with a fairytale European flavor also containing surprises.

Rose Petals on Door Steps in Heidelberg - Photo by Sharani

For instance since when do you associate Germany with flower petals scattered in the entry ways of a building? Yet that is precisely what I encountered in two different doorways to stores/restaurants in the Old Town.

The Yahoo! Travel Guide to Heidelberg states that a popular saying for Heidelberg is “Ich hab’ mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren” (I lost my heart in Heidelberg). They also refer to it as “heavenly”! Now is it any coincidence that before knowing either of these two things I named my photo album of Heidelberg “Heavenly Heidelberg” and chose a photo of a sticker on a motorbike that says “I heart HD” as the title photo of the album?

I love Heidelberg - Photo by Sharani

Many aspects of the city come across as icons from the vantage point of an American tourist.  We found ourselves referring to locations in iconic fashion with simple all-encompassing words - Castle (Schloss in German), Old Town (Alt Stadt), Old Bridge (Alte Brucke), the River (Fluss), Market Square (Marktplatz ), University (Universitätsplatz), Main Street (Haupstrasse one of the longest pedestrian- only areas in Europe).

The cobblestone streets (which we kept walking on forgetting that they were for cars not pedestrians), the castle on the hill, a city clustered along a river, church bells ringing for a solid fifteen minutes to strike the hour, excellent food from open air markets and small bakeries - all together created an easily cherished and enjoyable visit. Heidelberg is certainly one of my new favorite travel destinations in Europe. It finds me enthusiastically exclaiming, “If Kennedy is a Berliner, Ich bin ein Heidelberger.”

This photo slideshow of my trip memories offers some highlights of my visit:

Some of my other favorite places I’ve blogged/written about:

Turkey: The Call of Turkey

Paris: Paris: Je t’aime!

Japan : Bamboo, Butterflies and Buddha: Japanese Journey