It was eleven forty when we finally began to descend towards
When we finally reached the car we both had officially frozen threw. We sat in the car with out hands up to the heaters looking out the windows at the stars and taking in how quite the airport seemed to be. As we drove home Siddhartha fell asleep, I decided then where I wanted to take him in the morning. I had been thinking about it all of the plane ride and still hadn’t thought of the perfect place. But at that time it came to me. I would take him to the
The next morning seemed almost like spring. The weather changed dramatically over night and the snow from the week before was gradually starting to melt away. The sun was out with hardly any clouds as far as the eye could see. Siddhartha woke up around nine. I was quite surprised that the time difference didn’t seem to have much effect on him. After a breakfast we drove down to the river. I explained to Siddhartha how beautiful this river was and how it was the same river we had watched from the sky last night.
As we parked and walked towards the river I felt Siddhartha begin to relax. Even for such a nice day it was still fairly early and hardly anyone was out yet. We sat on the bench that looked out towards the river. “What do you think?” I asked. He smiled and looked me straight in the eye, “reminds me of home, where I work as a ferryman, only this river is much bigger than the one I travel over and care of, it speaks differently as well.” What do you mean?” I asked him. “My river laughs, it laughs at my mistakes and my achievements, and it talks to me. It gives me knowledge and I’ve learned greatly from the river.” We sat in silence watching the water and the people walking up and down. We sat listening and watching for almost an hour. We watched the planes fly over some landing and some leaving; we watched the birds, and the families.
We went out to a local spot for lunch; we sat outside on the patio and watched the people walk by with as many shopping bags as they could possibly carry. People around
It was getting late into the day and it was a routine of mine to go to the gym every night. For me the gym was a place to relax myself and forget about everything in my life that was causing me stress. I thought that since I had taken him to the river where there was plenty of activity. I thought that the gym would be a good place where he could relax and take in everything he’d seen today.
When we arrived the gym seemed dead. Only a couple of people were in the entire building, which made working out so much better. I had given Siddhartha one of my Ipod’s to listen too while he was working out. We worked out for about an hour. I looked over at Siddhartha periodically through out the time we were there and I could see him staring blankly at the TV screens thinking of everything his eyes had seen today. Once and in while I could see a smile form on his lips and then disappear shortly after. I knew he was thinking of the people and family’s he had seen today. How they lived there everyday life, how they were connected to material things and without them they would simply not function correctly. He remembered the time in his life where those people used to be him. He remembered how much he’s learned since then about himself and about his life. He looked relaxed and at peace, as if he was mediating in a different way than he was used to. Instead of being under the tree next to the river or in his hut he was walking on a treadmill in the middle of a dead gym. Either way though he looked like he was at peace maybe perhaps even more than before, or maybe in just a different way.
As the days went by I continued to bring Siddhartha to the