Hiking the Hills

When I think the sanskrit word sukha - "happiness" in English, I picture myself walking along the market streets of Rishikesh. When I say market streets, I should explain that they're dirt roads and just before the cybercafe is a cow and her calf, lying in the doorway next to it, just hanging out. I would go in every other morning, and greet her on my way to check for messages from the states.

It's been 5 months and ten days since my return from India and I find that the images and feelings evoiked by those colors and sounds and smells (of mud, of animals, of spices cooking on outdoor fires) have been recently growing stronger.

Lately I've been hiking 4 miles in the hills near my home and I feel India creeping from my psyche into my physiology. It is a feeling of contentment and aknowledgment that there is only one thing -- the cow & her calf, the cybercafe & the smell of spice. It is me as I walk.