Clowning in India: Pre-Departure Preamble

I am about to embark on a clowning trip to southern India. I leave tonight.

I have to tell the story of how this happened. My friend is a clown and he wanted to organise a trip to Vellore in Southern India. I wasn’t able to commit to the trip as I am never sure if money is there or not. It is the nature of the life I lead where I tend to flow outside of structures. I have been housesitting. Anyway I did have some issues which I decided to write to my friend. He smoothed them out and the green light went on for me.

Within one week I had my passport and the money I had donated to Rotary as part of their ‘Peace Through Service’ year came back to me for my ticket. We got a cheap flight.

I was housesitting a cat and I thought my friend would take up the house sit. Turns out she couldn’t make a commitment, my other friend made a spontaneous decision to come to Perth with the idea of taking up two weeks of my house sit. I have a house sit for 4 months. Well I couldn’t confirm that for her until I spoke to the house owner, he was travelling around Australia. So I got in touch with him via email and mobile and turns out he had friends staying at his other house. He ended up arranging for them to take the whole house sit, the whole 3 months remaining. For me that is a challenge as I have all my possessions in the house and they have slightly expanded to two car loads. The house owner suggested I swap with the couple in the other house, which will give me two weeks of a bed on my return. Such is the nature of my life, nothing is permanent, in truth this is a true state of play in the world. My life mirrors that world of change all the time. It isn’t easy as I was also running a workshop and found that I was offered some work. So I was busy.

I ended up moving all my stuff and travelling 40-50 km round trip. I was exhausted. One of my other friends offered to give me a free massage and a facial. I’ve never had a facial. So it was pampering and it was so needed as I was completely exhausted. So I went to this clinic and lay there in luxury for two hours. It was wonderful.

I then went to my friends place as she was making me dinner and going to take me to the airport to fly out. She invited a lovely friend who had been to India, she gave me some lavender for the mossies (mosquitoes). My friend’s housemate is a lovely guy and he joined us with his friend. We talked about seeing life differently. My friend is a wise soul and I notice she sits back and observes more. She is a yoga teacher who is absolutely passionate about healing and is a genuine person of service. I notice she has given me a free yoga session in the past. I love the fact she gets what real service to humanity is. I would deem her a light here. So we are all chatting and after our stimulating conversation proposing an alternative reality, which interestingly, this flatmate said he knows. We ended up learning how to dance. He swept us girls up and danced with us. I loved it and of course, clowned around. I jumped on his feet and felt that was a good way to learn, rather than trip over them. We spoke of romance and relationships and I added that we have to love ourselves first so that the relationship is not needy. I could see he was interested. It was a great night and I ended up going back for the last night of my house sit. I didn’t sleep well, too much wine, even a couple of glasses is too much for me these days. So 3 am I was still awake. Anyway, nothing I can do I just have to go with the flow.

The next day the flight was rebooked and another friend of mine covered the costs which I will reimburse on my return to Australia. I wondered why this had happened (spiritually), I don’t believe in coincidences anymore. Well I ended up ringing a new friend who I met at a peace gathering. I had left my power chord for my laptop in the hills (25 kms out) and she was closer. I thought maybe I could borrow her computer and just check out my emails. Anyway, we ended up talking about cancelled flights and the fact that there are no coincidences, all happens for a reason. We spoke of a guy called Nick Vujicic, he is an Australian without arms or legs who is just a dynamo, he is so optimistic. Refer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo_24_qTNac for more information. He goes to many schools talking about his life and how to become resilient. Now she felt to tell me about this guy and said you must Google his film trailer featuring his new book ‘unstoppable’. Now funnily enough I actually used that word to describe this guy in the course of our communication. The point was to press on to not allow life to stop you from your own personal mission. I do get this as I am a peace clown and World Peace is my vision. I do not consider it an ideal I consider it our birthright, of who we truly are. Anyway, I took on board her comments and unending enthusiasm and excitement about life and encouraging me to go for it. I hung up from her and headed to the shopping centre (nearby) to have some lunch.

I walked through the shopping centre and I felt a definite inner pull to go into the ABC shop. This has lots of videos and books from the Australian Broadcasting Commission. I scan the books and blow me down there is Nick’s book ‘Unstoppable’. I am not lost on the synchronicity of this. I open the book at the section that just happens to be on bullying. That of course is my area. I teach anti-bullying (when I can get in the schools). Anyway, I read it carefully as he described being bullied and how as a boy without arms and legs he was used to receiving disparaging comments about his physical difference. He went onto to describe one guy who always picked on him every day. He was sick to the stomach and felt anxious and depressed. In the end he rolled his wheelchair up to this guy and asked him why, turns out the guy didn’t seem to realise what he was doing and stopped from that point. The issue with bullying is the psychological impact of a person feeling verbally or physically attacked, it creates all sorts of deep psychological trauma. I myself have experienced bullying and had some issues with a person regarding power and stonewalling. This of course over the 24 hours was with me fresh in my mind and I saw what had occurred to me as a form of trauma. At the same time it felt as if I have a purpose in this field. I was reminded as I read Nick’s words and he went onto describe the statistics on bullying which are up around 30% of kids, some of the stats I read 1 in 10 are bullied, 1 in 20 are bullying but I sense this is getting higher as cyber bullying becomes an easier way of harassment. One cannot look at this and not see society in another way, the bullying at work, in relationships, we see it in Parliament and so on. It is part of the culture and has its roots in asserting power over others and powerlessness. Many grow up in homes that are not that demonstratively loving or patterns of behaviour that are what is termed ‘dysfunctional’ here. He reminded me of the importance of my work as a Peace Clown. I wondered if my trip to India is about developing this work. Even as I write this now I can feel tears, that is always a sign for me. Nick is also a devout Christian and has his faith firmly in the centre. I am spiritual and I know that one must be in alignment with that higher power, or you can call it love or truth, it doesn’t matter, when you are in alighment with truth your face shines. Certainly Nick’s does and he has no arms or legs, he even got married this year, good on you Nick. So his title for his book ‘unstoppable’ is a message to me. I felt it definitely.

So now I am back at my friend’s place. I am going to have a rest before I go to India tonight.

This trip I feel is going to be special. I feel it in my heart. Something will happen on this trip I know, as everything has fallen into place. Moreover, I feel I will be tested.

We clowns (10 of us) will go to orphanages, leprosy places, visit girls who have been trafficked, schools, hospitals and villages. We have a total of 30 places to see. So I am sure energetically it will be full on. What I felt when I spoke to my friend and the lady who owned the health spa was that I felt a strong desire as a clown to shine love into the eyes of the children and people I see. I feel it strongly to just pass on the love. You cannot imagine the beauty of loving people like this with no agenda, just to share love. Always I feel the privilege as a clown and I know we are equal. So I don’t see myself as a westerner going to India to give to the deserving, I see myself as an equal going to share love with other beautiful human beings, I see them as my teachers. I see that beauty in deformities, disability, physical difference, sickness etc. I wish to be a mirror to those who think they are not beautiful, to see a shining clown laughing and smiling with them. For me that is the most beautiful image I can imagine. Beauty for me is in the soul.

So this is the introduction to my trip with some background leading up to my departure. I am very happy to be going tonight and am intrigued to see what happens given this delay.

Mohandas Gandhi

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

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