Early start, here in Espanola Sardhana starts at 3:40 am, at 4am there is a Kundalini yoga set, followed at 4:45 with chanting, the Gurdwara programme starts at 6am.
Afterwards we went back to the house where Shanti phenji had made a very tasty breakfast, it was great to see the whole family taking time out of their busy schedule to eat together. Something we should all take on board.
We then got ready and off to the Gurdwara, it so feels like we have been away on holiday and now come back home to Espanola. The sangat are amazing, so warm and friendly. After the programme where we were fortunate to hear kirtan by Chardi Kala Jatha, we had lungar. It was very nice talking to the sangat, they all came over said Fateh and gave us big hugs.
The children always participate in the programmes
For the evening we had planned to go to the cinema with Harijot Singh, to watch superman. Others were mentioning about a drum party. Which also sounded like fun.
As we had a few hours spare we drove to Tesuque village, an upmarket area outside Santa Fe. The houses are all adobe and looked huge.
Sangeet had been finding the desert heat during the day very intense so decided to take it easy at Shanti phenji's house. I met Harijot Singh at the Gurdwara. They were celebrating the birthday of Pritpal Singh. Harijot also mentioned the drum party, we agreed that we can go to the cinema any day. At the drum party we met Gurjot Singh and his wife, it was great to see them.
Later that night I dropped Gurjot and his wife home and Harijot at the Gurdwara. It was great catching up with everybody.
After a good nights sleep we packed said our goodbyes to Amrit Phenji and drove to San Francisco airport, as we are only forty minutes away from San Francisco airport we got to hertz rental company for 8:30. It was definitely sad to leave California.
We then took the air train to terminal 3 (United flight) the check in queues were very long, luckily we had enough time.
Once through security we proceeded to the airport lounge where we caught up on last minute emails.
The lounge, where everybody looks so happy!!
The plane
View of New Mexico from the plane
The flight to Albuquerque takes two and a half hours, also Albuquerque is ahead by one hour. As soon as we landed got our luggage and picked up the car from hertz. We headed over to Annapurna for cheese toastie and Sangeet had burger. Both were good vegetarian and gluten free meals.
Annapurna Restaurant
Cheese Toastie
Sangeet's burger
We then headed over to Espanola. Shanti Kaur phenji has very kindly offered her amazing house to us. After seven years we have finally got to spend quality time with phenji. We have often said we will chat over a nice hot drink!
On the way to Espanola
We chatted with Shanti phenji and paji. Shanti phenji has been a huge inspiration for me and many others since the Jaap sahib course in 2007. It was such a powerful course and it lead me to take Amrit. I truly made the connection on this course.
Phenji and paji had a evening function so attended that. We visited the Gurdwara. Afterwards we thought of going down memory lane and visiting the house we stayed at, the gold house. I stayed there for my Kundalini yoga teacher training and Sangeet stayed there for the super health course.
Whist entering the compound where the gold house is situated, two ladies approached us looking stressed and said they are attending the 21 stages of meditation course. They were at a loss where everything is, Gurdwara, registration area. We said jump into the car and we will show you, we showed them the Gurdwara also drove down to Walmart so they could call home. Sangeet explained the Sunday programme and the daily Sardhana. The ladies name are Ciclia from Brazil and Tanya from Moab they were very grateful for our help. It was great to exchange stories on how they came across Kundalini yoga and their love for the Sikh way of life.
As it was getting late and everybody had plans for Sardhana (3:40am start!) we decided to head back to Shanti Kaur Phenjis house.
Looking back it is amazing how things work out. We had no plans for the evening. Waheguru did not want us to be idle so put us to work and help the two ladies!
We would like to thank you all for your great emails. We like to especially thank Shanti Kaur Khalsa, she is a true inspiration and her emails are truly uplifting and thought-provoking. As I mentioned in a previous blog (going back to Espanola, USA) here are some of phenji’s videos:
The flight to Chicago (Albuquerque – Chicago – New York) was delayed by 30 minutes so we really did not need for the mad dash!!
The airport has free wifi so that is always good to know, I managed to upload some YouTube videos, Sangeet emailed some thank you’s
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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