#55. The ashram diaries: empty before leaving

It's late September and I'm coming back from my 3 months bike trip hoping it won’t take longer than a week for me to go back to Spain. I miss her, I want to be at Saraswathi Ma’s ashram n-o-w.  In my plans, it is a quick stop in Geneva to wash my clothes, leave the bike, pack some winter jackets, start the procedures to renew my residence permit and immediately board a plane to Sierra Nevada.

(Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road )*

Yet bureaucracy with my residence permit is no smooth this time.  A month passes in front of me while I’m here, stuck in Geneva with my expired visa. Sort of living illegally in the country, not allowed to renew my health insurance or flying back to Brazil, this time I’m also homeless, living at friends’ places, bags and clothes spread between Ana, Juli and Victor’s apartment.

(Suddenly everything has changed)**

But it’s surprising. It feels incredibly so light.

Not having a place is a relief, fulfillment, completeness.

10kg skinner, I’m all in my enormous loose jeans and breastless t-shirts.

Stripped from sexy clothes, home, documents, medical safety, plans for the future and even from my former lovely long curly hair         I come to sit alone by the lake and wait for some unfolding, noticing that Swiss days now are getting colder. Autumn comes into place.

Once unbearable, Geneva has never been so beautiful.

Away from the bad smell of sticky and useless belongings I naturally come to true learning.

:Bare Nakedness is a gift.

Empty and joyful, I'm now ready to go.

***
* "Song to the Open Road", by Walt Whitman
* "Suddenly Everything Has Changed", a song by The Flaming Lips 

This is the second post of "The Ashram Diaries" - a series about my 20-days living at the ashram Finca La Luz between late-October and November 17, 2013.

With Love and gratitude to Mooji and Saraswathi Ma.

***

*Suddenly, everything has changed

*Moojiji

* Saraswathi Ma