Monday, June 11th, 2012

Farms and the City

Lotbiniere, Quebec

I am now clearly out of residential district. We’re in what looks like thriving agricultural territory. Daruka and I have this inside joke about coincidentally finishing each day where a tractor is parked. Such was true in New Brunswick. Red tractors became our benchmark. It only becomes a problem if the farmer hops on it and moves it to another place.

The skyline here is marked with churches through the rare village, and in the country side silos are found that resemble Siva lingams (as in Indian temples), only these are huge. As is common in the month of May, goldfinch birds (it’s always a couple) tend to greet me each day. Their jerky flight is quite unique.

On this day the sun shone and rain poured simultaneously. This is supposed to be an auspicious time. At least two gods are at play here, Surya, the sun, and Indra, the rain provider. It’s magic from the heavens. To try to drum up some interest from the media in Quebec City, Daruka and I drove, backtracking to the popular Quebec City. It is over 400 years old, which is ancient for North America. On the streets, people showed a fascination for Billy the Parrot. The bird certainly upstaged me, although a man of the cloth is seldom to be seen these days. It’s sad that up to now no one from the press showed interest. To compensate for time, we took to the Boardwalk, the historic plains of Abraham, and the quaint streets where people were a buzz. They couldn’t bypass the feathered creature without taking notice and breaking into conversation with us. Eventually, the mention of the walk would come into the conversation, and then Krishna’s name of course. People became encouraged as we did our two hour stop-talk-start routine on foot.

On this topic of encouragement, I did spend some minutes on the phone with regard to someone within our community in Toronto who felt they were being overly put down despite so much hard work. To the powers that be (administratively) I just want to mention this, it takes courage to encourage, it takes no talent to denigrate, to find fault or constantly put down. In fact, discourage means no courage.

30 Km