Danny was off and I was hoping so badly to get on the rock… But… Rain! Good for the parc, not good for the climbing :-) Had to think of an alternative and got to participate in the Meadow and Tuolumne Meditation that was organized by Jean Redle again. It was basically a yoga session introducing us to the nature here. Jean was terribly creative about it. She called the downwarddog-position: Dome-pose, the high-lunge would be the Cathedral Peak-pose, triangle-pose would be the Clark Nutcracker-pose, the pigeon-pose would become the Peregrin Falcon-pose, etc. While doing the asanas Jean talked about all these animals, plants and mountains, explaining how they lived, how they became into existence and so on. Jean has a big sense of metaphorical imaging and would translate the natural world to our human world. I loved the way she metaphored REST and ACTIVITY. For example the Golden Chested Ground-squirrel she explained, hibernates. It knows the equilibrium needing to be in balance, to be healthy. These cute little creatures are totally connected to the four seasons and live in harmony with it. With some distance now, she can say that her gratest gift in life was healing after being diagnosed cancer in stage four. It tought her how to respect her body and it's biological needs, living with the biological seasons of rest and activity. The grasses now in autumn are in seeding stage, they plant for what will grow the following years. That could remind us of planting our seeds, when and how. The energy you can feel in Yosemity's nature is most likely linked to the granite that was formed in the heart of our planet by magma and pressure over millions of years. And this energy is still being released now. Moving from the heart. Juniper pines (le genévrier) are the trees growing out of rock cracks. Sometimes hundereds of meters above the ground. It is one of the most resistant trees against drought. It would first dry out some of its branches in order to survive as a whole tree. Nature knows how to regulate itself. Nature lives by the natural laws. We have forgotten it, and must learn it again.
Later in the day Danny and I went down to Mammoth to spend the rainy cold afternoon on the net (no WIFI in Tuolumne Meadows!!!), and doing some shopping. He had also a surprise in store that included I had to take my bikini. The rain had stopped and after a short drive out of town we ended up walking in the desert going I don’t know where. What was this surprise??! Believe it or not, but it started to smell like rotten eggs. And I got my hint: sulfurate hot springs!!! Who would think to find this out there! There are no indications, no signes for them. But all of a sudden, there is a hot spring coming out of the ground. A lot of them. We spent three hours in the sulfurate hot water. It felt like healing my neck and body, immensely good. Nothing hurt in that water. Just total relaxation. Its a popular activity, and by 8 pm. the natural pool was filled with the hippies and kids from town having their beer and weed. We left when it got too crowded. On the way back to the car, Danny collected sage. A plant that the North American Indians used for cleansing rituals. (Later on in India, one of my teachers would talk about it and show us how to use it. Burn the dry branches and swirl them around your body, to get rid of negative energies) Americas roads are the best for listening to music. On the way home we didn't talk but enjoy our thoughts that were generated by great music. Fakear, Bon Iver, Bishop, Twenty-one pilots, Coldplay etc…
We spent that night watching the second part of the Budapest Hotel. It got very cold outside again and Danny felt bad for me, he proposed that we should share his bed for the night because it was so cold outside. I agreed with the perspective of a warm night, but soon realized that being squeezed between a wall and a guy, on a bed that sinks down towards the middle, with two snoring men and a snoring/dreaming dog in one room - do I need to say more? I quickly went outside to sleep in the van.
