in brittany france

Brittany is 5 hours from Paris, took a train through farms green fields all in straight lines also saw several windmills

Am staying with my freind Laurence who has a pyrimid house in a big garden.. her place has a view of the sea and there are nice walks going to the cliffs with waves crashing into the rocks

there is a three day festival for our guru... ranjit maharaj who has made several trips to europe. there are about 50 of us here... indians, french, germans; italians, one from the states..... its amazing . these guys know the marathi bhajans by heart.. i have to refer to my books.....singing with cymbals an drums and clapping

each day we start at 9 with morning kakad arati . about 45 miutes of singing. then one group makes six seven garlands with roses. two days ago I had gone with some to a large green house..almost 200 rows of roses half a kilometer long each.. we went down the rows plucking all the roses which were not growing straight up.. pink white red mixed colous pink and white red and pink.... 

then 12 we do the puja where the galands are hung on the samadhi and the pictures... lots of singing and also readings from the Das bodh and from maharajs lectures.. in french german and english...

then we have mahaprasad indian food for about 20 of the guests.... i have been helping in the cooking......

at 6 a video of maharaj when he was in france is put on.... then 8 night bhajans .. there is a lot of dancing in the afternoon doing titli . crossing hands and going round and round.. this can go on for half an hour and there is much laughter as people twirl till they are almost falling down... then at nght . its a simple two step dance but its done with so much gusto and dancing and singing. it goes on for 2 half hour sessions.. ends about 930 _10... then dinner and sleep .....

its really lovely .lots of nice talks with people...

finally the trip is being sorted out.. have to still make my talk for reed. then denver to meet jana, sante fe to meet karen, seattle where suzie and i go for almost a two day trip to meet a couple freind who are staying in a village on an island..... its way off and they have not been off the island for years i mean decades..... that is going to be an adventure.drive from seatle, bus for 10 hours, spend nite take fery for 10 hours.again spend nite and then to koyoko and dougs place.both of whom were at reed with us.........

taken pictures but dont know how to download.hopefully when reach vikrams...

its really been a gud trip... seeing how different people live, and having much time for reflection.. laurence lives here alone..its not as isolated as the farmhouse; and everything is much more organised; electicity water garbage collection a big supermarket and garden shop within 4 kms tarred roads... but seeing her live here alone is giving me a lot of gud feeling and feel haapy that will be coming back to a farmhouse which is built...... 

take care