shine on you crazy diamond

the same day guruji passed from this life, my very best friend in the whole wide world landed in india... i decided to surprise her by taking the late night drive up to bangalore with kumar in an old ambassador.

after whipping through traffic and flying over a bajillion speedbumps, witnessing a few car wrecks and seeing a few dead bodies along the way... i arrived at the airport 4 hours later, cold and jostled, but completely estatic. these were the thoughts that ran through my head as i was waiting for her plane to land...

i should of brushed my teeth before i left. i would strangle a monkey for a piece of gum... i'm freezing my bollocks off. maybe i should of had a hot coffee instead of this iced eskimo... kumar picks his nose a lot, but he's very sweet... it's the only cold day in india and i'm sitting outside the airport in flip flops and a flimsy longsleeve t-shirt. what airport puts the waiting lounge outside the actual airport anyway?... i'm so excited, i could puke... the flight is delayed... just my luck. the universe tests me again...

after what seemed like eons, bec finally walks out of the airport with a huge smile on her face and a shell-shocked look in her eye. she spots the driver, kumar, holding a sign with her name on it, jumping up and down and waving her over. as she walks towards him, i tackle her from the sidelines... and get the biggest hug in the universe.

seeing bec walk out of the airport and into india made me realize how far i've come... in life and across the world... and how badly i've needed her here. i've been needing a good, solid hug for weeks... especially from one of the people who know me best in this world.

we laughed and cried and giggled and sighed the whole entire ride back to mysore... and i haven't shut up since. i even had to force myself to stop talking so she could take a shower.

we have coffee on the balcony at 4:30 am and absorb the quiet beauty of dawn with whispered conversations and cool breezes... a blue hue blankets the streets of gokulam for just a moment. we're awake even before the birds. yoga practice is beyond amazing and we can't wait to get there.

we have band practice in the afternoon... um, yeah... who knew i would ever be in a band... since i don't want to outshine the band, i've decided to take a back seat and be the chai wallah and the t-shirt designer... i make a killer chai these days. i've taken the title of band manager... and i'm pretty good at it. (my bandmates didn't want me to feel left out) becca and our aussie friend tim spend most of the time randomly strumming their guitars... sometimes they learn new songs and natalie the mexican and i pretend we know how to sing. my favorite song so far is "i'll give you a dollar"... we've even made our first music video.

my best friend is finally here. my heart is filled. i feel complete. even though i've been feeling all the heaviness of the world lately, i now feel safe within this light. i feel grateful for my own life, for my own strength, for my own happiness. i know how precious life is, how lucky i am to be where i am and to have all these amazing people around me. i laugh all the time now and get random hugs whenever i need one. india is good... it all is.