Time and patience are my two biggest bugbears, don't get me wrong I can be so very patient with other people especially the children I work with and time, well time in India is a strange concept that I kind of cope with. Those two words though, when it refers to me personally, I struggle so much with them. Around 18 months ago during one of my meditation sessions and then again in my mentoring session with my mentor, these two words came up for me, as clear as day, as if someone had spoke them in my head and since then, I've realise that time and patience are a real bug bear! When it comes to me, what I want and what I want to do, I want it all now and I don't want to give it time and have patience to wait for it to come around and finally be sorted out. I guess I think time is precious and it's precious how we use it. If we waste so much time in the wrong situation or in procrastinating are we not missing out on so much whether that is true and real happiness or achieving what you wish to in life and making changes that could have a positive impact on others.
India for me has always been a challenge but not in the usual ways that people would assume such as issues with staring or attitudes towards women which although can be a bit of a pain, I tend to take it in my stride and love the challenge of defying the odds or walking and acting confidently. However I guess it challenges me on my time and patience as I have realised that in India things are slow to get going, not in a negative way but that it just takes time to get sorted, to make connections, to build businesses, to learn all that you need to and find out the information that you want.
I have lived here just under five months and I guess in a way that I thought I would be fully settled with my business established. I think I basically thought I could pick up my UK life and naively thought that it would work out just as well. It hasn't but I am glad of that, i'm glad of the random opportunities that pop up, that you never know who you will meet that will provide you with a snippet of information, a helping hand, some wisdom or a new job prospect. I really do love that about here, that it is so random and one thing often leads to another, but at the same time I feel like I am being taught the lesson of time and patience. The reality is that jobs which I would work on in the UK and could get solved in a week can take up to a month to sort and a large proportion of that is not knowing where to look or how to get hold of something. I was hoping my massage business would be fairly well set up by now but I keep hitting snag after snag whether it is issues with google verification process or my website failing to find it's way up the search engines and I once again have to have time and patience. I almost feel like a draw string toy being held back whilst I am stood there trying to run forward and I am reminded that in India I need to have time and patience, to allow things to develop as they naturally should without overly forcing or becoming too stressed, particularly as new opportunities open up all the time.
I am forever trying to be two steps ahead, running along but India teaches me that you can try and be like that and waste a lot of energy or you can go with the flow and let things work themselves out. For example last time when my sim card was cut off, the joys of being a tourist! It took around a week to get sorted and put back on again, including the fact that they said it would be done by the end of the Saturday and it wasn't. I could of kept stressing and wasting time and energy on the situation including the Sunday when the phone shop was closed or I could let it be, focus on other things and return on Monday to see what the issue was, which was caused by a power cut. I guess sometimes we have to have the time and patience to weather the storms and allow situations and people the space to work things out.
Deep and reflective post for the week! Which reminds me, I am signed up to do the ten day Vipassna meditation retreat here in Jaipur. I really enjoy meditation and find it so beneficial to quieten the mind, go within and listen to the heart and soul, it usually has the answers! It is a ten day silent meditation, that I can cope with ok...the bits that I cringed at were that phones would be taken from you, gulp! Worst of all though, no food after mid day except fruit!.......I don't know how I am going to cope on that! If I don't eat I get ratty and I get headaches and I don't feel good, so going several hours without proper food does not fill me with joy, still it should be a good experience......if I can smuggle a few food bits in with me;-)
The downside of moving to another country and giving up everything you once had means you get rid of a lot of stuff before you leave and I really did get rid of everything save a few boxes my mum is looking after for me, plus you no longer have the well paying job to be able to afford anything! I was fortunate to grow up in a family where we learnt the value of money and how to get by on very little. At a young age we learnt how to make money by doing odd jobs for people within the town and by age 11 I had a paper round. I digress! It also taught us to make the most of things and how to turn what may be seen as rubbish in to something and to enjoy second hand things. My brother and sister in the garden where we spent many hours pretending soil was ice cream and tried to make bow and arrows out of tree branches!
I am fortunate to have a beautiful terrace here, which I absolutely love and am sat outside here right now writing this. I spend most of my time out here as I love watching the birds, being in nature and listening to the bats as they flutter around at night. I also love gardening and as my terrace is my own little haven, my own place to escape when I face any difficulties out here, I wanted to put my own mark on it. However, that's a little difficult when you don't have any spending money and so I knew I had to employ some of those skills to turn my terrace around. I began to plan my ideas and here is an example of what I will do, once I have drank all my beer! Once I've cleaned up the bottles and removed the labels I'll put candles into the bottles to create lighting.
I do have lights on the terrace but would prefer this kind of lighting. I'll also get people to collect glass jars so I can put tea lights in to create further lighting! I already made my own plant pots out of an old plastic bottle! My lovely Hindi teacher kindly gave me an Aloe Vera plant so that I can try and grow one eventually as big as the one I used to have back in the UK.
I really wanted to decorate my terrace with some plants but when I heard the cost of plant pots, which are significantly more than in the UK, I was wondering what to do instead. Fortunately my lovely bhai had already offered to let me have some plants when the weather was cooler for planting out....but that left me still needing to get pots....until the universe answered my query for me! Thanks to the local expat group on Facebook and someone choosing to give away her unwanted pots due to a house move, I not only got some plant pots but five plants too! They look lovely on my terrace and it is so uplifting to see them and makes me feel even more at home. My bhai will bring me two curry plants tomorrow which will be great for cooking with and another wonderful addition to my garden.
Soon though the plants will have to go indoors as it is too hot here and they'll not be able to cope with the heat.....not really an issue I have had to deal with when it comes to plants in the UK. It was truly wonderful having my dilemma resolved and receiving this wonderful free gift of plants, I love it when the Universe answers!
Next freebie and thing to be grateful for, was receiving some books! When I came out here I was allowed to bring around 55kg of belongings and seeing as I wanted my shoes and clothes and hair dye there was no room for heavy books! Sadly a friend will be heading back to her own country after having lived here for the last nine months. No longer needing things like books, she thought I might like them. It's lovely to receive some books as although I am not a big reader it is nice to have the option there and some of the books are about India and so I'll enjoy reading them.
I'm especially grateful for the Hindi dictionary and book about learning Hindi. Both will be incredibly helpful resources for me and the dictionary will be a great too guide. Again it would have been nice to have one but I hadn't bought one as yet as it wasn't a necessity and I could make do without, but i'm really glad to have it....and will probably constantly have my nose in it finding out how to say the latest word that has popped in to my head!
It's lovely when you get rewarded one way or another and receiving the books was a nice bonus and helpful and receiving the plant pots and plants to go with it was a real blessing. I'm on my way to making my terrace look fantastic.....I soon won't need to live inside, just outside, or at least until the rains come!
