Simple mountain life helps us to accept and be creative.
To accept that yeah, maybe the spring water which we use for washing the dishes is cold and dark with the soil, but it is still fine. We drink other water, carry it every other day from another spring with a huge basket full of bottles.
To accept that yeah, if I wanna take bath, I either make fire to heat water in the garden or use the warmth of the sun to warm up the water and more importantly, me 🙂
To accept that the night is dark. There is only a small, weak light bulb in the kitchen, where we cook, eat and sleep at night. We cook sitting on the floor, with cc 4 dishes, sometimes even for 6-8 people.The food is simple. By now my daal, chana or sabji is also appreciated by my main Himalayan cooking teacher, who I named before Son of Himalayas :-). Will share the recipes too, when the time comes.
The nice is how the acceptance of simplicity and a different dimension of time comes straight with the enjoyment of everyday activities. Enjoying taking the long walk to the shop, the ritual of making chapatis and cutting almost the same vegetables every day. Enjoying while having a bath, how the ice cold water and the hot sun rays meet on my skin.
We flush the toilet with a bucket and there is no light and not even a trace of warmth. But it is also a delight that it is so natural. And at night sometimes I just pee in the nature, under the sky, full of stars and even the milky way can be seen. Well, the next sentence is only for women: I even was blessed with having my period here and using a moon cup, could share my blood with Mother Earth in majestic Himalayas.
So, this is the every day life here. Since I arrived, we had a few groups of guests from different parts of India, sometimes it was just Son of Himalayas and me and now two travelers from Portugal and Poland, working on a beautiful project, an integrated system for communities of people to follow the mechanisms of nature in their life, a guidance from the elements, while looking for a place to live, a way to live and make money, etc. Feel lucky that I met them and this project, the start of something beautiful.
Meantime…well, who knows me also knows that traditionally I am a “clumsy” girl scared of so many things. Wandering around and managing the daily activities here in the Himalayas tests my comfort zone every single day. Precious tests 🙂 Once I even lead some guests for a walk to our water place. We originally planned to make it farther, to the waterfall, but I have also never been there before and couldn’t find the way. Was still a nice experience. And I have more and more exposure to hardcore off-road bike rallies, over water springs and all.
And meantime I was also blessed with the opportunity to experience how it is to run a guesthouse in the mountains. After a week I can tell I really enjoy being a host here. Daily household activities seem whole different if we don’t do them as an extra obligation in addition to our job. Could imagine a life like this on the longer term too 🙂
And what is going on under in the background, in my heart? It will come to a separate post…
