Naked

Some of you may know, but a week after returning from India, I discovered I had contracted headlice from the orphanage in Rishikesh. I won't go into much detail, but you can see from the phot-oh! that it took some drastic moves to finally eradicate them!

Suffice it to say that after battling daily for 3 months straight, I've chosen to give up the fight. It feels much gentler than what I've been through. Besides, I'm much more interested in dedicating myself to music than to fighting for my vanity...

I'm sure I'll let it grow back, as I tend to honor and allow Mother Nature to have her way... But in the meantime, I'm embracing this letting-go as a spiritual practice. If you read "Om Namah Shivaya," "Stop," or "Pancakes and Ice Cream" below, you've seen that I'm already in a period of 'renunciation' of sorts - of renouncing worldly attachments in favor of the embrace of a deeper truth.

I read an article recently about a woman who renounced the world in favor of living in solitude and silence for 10 years. After that span, she came back into the world with what appeared to be limitless vibrancy. In his article, "No Becomes Yes," David Whyte says of her, "She had an inexhaustible inner light that would endure thru the direst of circumstances. She had come to that light through the ability to say no to everything except the thing most precious to her, an inner focus based on her personal spirituality.... Out of those years of saying no blossomed a magnificent yes - a yes that could be followed fully because after all those years gathering her psyche into one single body of faith, every part of her would be uttering it. Yes!"

It is my intention to continue this period of 'renunciation' so long as it serves me in truly diving into the heart of truth. On the surface (besides the bald head :-) it may not appear as much - I still go out with friends, perform, enjoy the beauty of nature... But inwardly, the experience of retracting my thoughts, dissolving the grasping mind, and renouncing some traditional pleasures feels like an important step in embracing something more true than the fleeting breath of this world...

My altar ego...