*catchy title huh?

Exceptions? What are they? What is the purpose for the Spiritual Seeker? Or do they even have one?

For the past couple of weeks, I've enacted a practice a like to call "Spiritual Silent Sundays," where I am silent for 24 hours and attempt to fill it with spiritual activities throughout the whole day whether it is mantras, meditation, journal-ing, walking, watching videos from my spiritual master or reading.

This practice seems to be a nuisance for one of my family members. And on this particular Sunday morning, this family proceeded to ask me the following question...after I informed them that I would be in silence:


               "Are these silent modes really necessary 
               during the holiday season? Someone may 
               need to ask you a question, ask for 
               advice or need you to do something."


And it CLICKED! (I love my silent times because they are filled with little realizations I like to call "clicks" almost like a switch was flipped inside of me or a light bulb screwed on)

For the past few months or more like a year, I've been struggling with discipline in my spiritual practices and discipline in my academic life. And when I read this message, I flashed backwards into why did I lose my discipline? When did I start falling down the slippery slope of laziness?...EXCEPTIONS...

When I started making excuses or exceptions for why it was okay to push this back or not do this today because I was rationalizing that something else was more important. When in reality it wasn't. That first exception was me opening the door for more, giving me a good REASON aka excuse as to why it was ok to push my spirituality to the side. It's so easy to make exceptions for this and that, once you allow the first one to take hold. You find yourself wondering how in the world did I get here? I used to be so disciplined, so on top of things, how did I let myself go? How did I let what was once the top priority in my life become a mere chore?...EXCEPTIONS

Now I do say this with the reality that sometimes true emergencies do arise, situations do occur throughout life that will take precedence over my spiritual practices at some point. But I believe for the spiritual seeker, especially the newbies, like myself first starting out, that it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to establish and maintain a high level of discipline and dedication to one's path or else you will end up where I'm currently at with a year of confusion, laziness and regression. Struggling to get back to that place of peace and spiritual growth...

So needless to say, I didn't respond to this family members message as a sign of good faith that I will establish my discipline again, that no more unnecessary "exceptions" will stop me from getting back on track...

I'm not sure what's going on with me. My opinions, ideas, thoughts and future have changed drastically in just a matter of a few weeks. I've realized things that I once thought were for me are not. I've accepted things about myself that I was forcefully trying to cast off. I've changed in so many ways that I can't believe it. I've accumulated so many experiences both spiritual and worldly that I haven't been able to formulate into words...I'm currently sitting here in Abu Dhabi with my father, taking a break from India...An African American woman in the Middle East with her father taking a break from Master's fieldwork in India...who would have thought that 30 years ago I would be doing something like this...Am I being random???

I don't know...It's just lately...I think about everything...Everything that I have been blessed with...everything my family has been blessed...everything that has been created and from where...I don't know how to explain it, but it s like lately I wonder and admire how things have come to be both material and unknown...like how does a one day old baby know how to raise its arm without seeing or having someone tell them how...how was ballet invented...who decided that moving in such a way was good...how was dance created...who thought of coordinating their legs to music...heck who came up with music???...I could go on for pages, but I will stop here, because the point I want to make is this...I'm noticing all the magnificent things that make up the "mundane."

And that's a beautiful thing...Now it could be clouded because I'm living the "good" life right now...I'm on the beach, eating good food, able to go to one spot and get all the toiletries that I need, lounging reading and spending time with my dad...That  may all change when I get back to India where I don't have the luxuries of a one stop shop where i have to wash my own clothes in a bucket, adjust to electrical outages and be out of touch with my family...but right now... in this very moment I see beauty in everything and I'm going to take it all in until it is time that I can't...

So I know before you even click play you're probably wondering what is this dark bluish black screen??? Well it's actually an audio entry and I didn't want to go through the hassle of getting an audio hosting site and all that goodness. Instead I recorded an audio blog.

I discuss what I did for the last day of Paryushan which is the Day of Forgiveness. I decided to do a water fast and walk on foot everywhere that I went. While I walked, I tried to take in everything that was around me and I mean everything. I remembered to be patient and to reflecct on all the wrong and all the mistakes that I had make. I truly thought about what made me do those things and decided to make more of a conscious effort to not let those things happen again.

Hopefully, this time I will be a little bit more fruitful :-)