One of the tenets of enlightenment is that of nonattachment. The idea is that attachment causes suffering. So by not being attached to things or people, we avoid suffering…or something like that.
All I know is that I really loved these sunglasses and this water bottle. The sun glasses were awesome because they had reader bifocals in them so I could read or look up close without having to change to my readers when I’m out in the sun. I had them for two years, which for me and sunglasses, is a huge amount of time. I even took great care of them, or at least I tried to. Before them, I would have to choose between seeing and squinting. Every once in a while I could do a layered thing with the sunglasses and do the readers on top of them. So when I lost my sunglasses during my first week in India, I was truly bummed out.
Losing the water bottle was tragic. Sally gave me this amazing water bottle that had a spritz mister on the top. One day it just showed up in the mail. I've been getting hot flashes and her sympathetic nature was activated when she saw the bottle on Groupon.
Hot flashes are never really comfortable, but breaking into a sweat in cold Maine is a lot more tolerable than it is in hot India. I used it in Maine primarily for drinking water and occasionally enjoying watching folks react to a fake sneeze accompanied by a spritz of my delightful water bottle mister.
It was in the humidity of Kerala that I really developed a deep relationship with Mister Waterbottle. He would tag along on the dusty roads of the Ashram and offer up a cool drink or a refreshing mist whenever I needed one. He also became a bit of a rock star since he was truly one of a kind. Others were surprised at first to see him give me a light spritz. Then I would offer them his services and they would appreciate that amazing relief he gave from the oppressive heat. I felt like I had a magic wand of instant refreshment!
I carried him with me everywhere I went. He would sit patiently as I ate dinner or sat in the temple listening to bhajans. He came with me to the coconut stand and the juice stand. He accompanied me to yoga and workshops. Once or twice I would forget him, but I’d quickly remember him and devotedly reunite with him. We were destined for each other. Mister Waterbottle was my hero.
So on the night before we were to travel to our next destination and I didn’t find him when I returned to our room I was devastated. What had I done! How could I have left him behind after all the refreshing moments we had shared. John immediately recognized the significance of this loss and he thoughtfully went out and searched everywhere from yoga studio to temple to coconut stand, but alas Mister Waterbottle was gone. I even woke up in the middle of the night parched and thinking he was still with me.
In the quiet darkness I pondered his absence. Maybe it was because I skipped Seva and God was punishing me? Maybe I showed him off too much and someone else coveted having him and snatched him away from me. Perhaps he was carelessly tossed away, abandoned in the recycling when no one came to claim him at the yoga studio?
I’ll never know. But as I travel away on this train, I realize that attachment does cause suffering.
But I resolved my "first world" problem with this pair of cheap sunglasses and this extremely cumbersome water bottle.
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