WOMAN IN THE DUNES

     Many years ago I saw, what became, one of my favorite films.  It is Japanese, slow and I thought it very existential at the time.  There was something horrible yet wonderful about what happened to this person in the film.  In the last few weeks, so much has happened.  I attended for free, a 4 day silent meditation retreat at this beautiful resort ($485 per night) on the south coast of Sri Lanka. Ironically this was a town devistated by the Tsunami.   I went to work, I advised the nursing staff about various things like jotting down in the ticket (chart)! when a patient tries to hurt themselves or others. I actually, with the great help of my sister volunteer, got 15 Alcoholic Anonymous members here from Colombo, 7 hours away.  We got them transportation, sleeping accommodations, food, a 4 hour meeting attended by most of the staff as well as our new Consulting Psychiatrist who has finally arrived and quite a few Alcohol patients and their partners who mostly stayed through the entire meeting and want to continue!  We even served everyone tea in china cups.  I feel hugely gratified by this.  The AA people will take turns coming back one time a week until a meeting gets fully established here.  It is truly a service organization.  I think I have mentioned the huge alcohol, spousal abuse and suicide rate here connected to alcoholism.  If this takes off it will be a start in changing the problem. (yes I am ashamed to say I am bragging a little..so full of ego am I!)  I finally found a translator and he arrived the first time on Monday afternoon for us to find no available staff that day for us to meet with..this is the Sri Lankan way like ordering breakfast to be delivered by 7:30AM for the AA people and at 7:50 it is just getting loaded into the tuktuk to be taken and then despite assuring me (thru a translator) he knew where the hotel was, getting lost and arriving half an hour later at the hotel (of course calling in between to tell me no one was there..wherever he was!)  As one of the doctors told me, this is the Sri Lankan way.  If I don't learn patience here, I am hopeless!  
     With each event or activity that occurs here, I always find that at home awaiting me is laundry to wash, a house to clean, ironing to be done, food to be shopped for and prepared, a body to be washed, teeth to be brushed...It struck me so clearly one morning that no matter where I am or what I am getting done or not, life is the same whether I am in NY or Badulla. 
  Moment to moment events may or may not be different, but what changes the moment is being in it, just being where I am.. What I love about Woman In The Dunes is that slavery becomes freedom for this person. Of course I am not condoning slavery to learn how to free ourselves but I do think that any moment can be anything depending on how we allow ourselves to experience it.
     Now this does not preclude the fact that 5 members of the psychiatric staff are pregnant or partners of pregnancy so it leads me to think a lot about how much "fun" everyone else besides me, is having these days!