I’m starting a new serial segment called “It’s Going to be Epic”. As you might have gathered from a few of my other posts, I’m a little in love with India. I wanted to go on a new adventure in 2015. Besides really delving deep into my blog, and finding my voice, I wanted to expand my writing as well as my experiences. I heard that you can be successful, but you won’t feel fulfilled unless you are giving back, somehow making yourself of service in some way.
So, I’m taking a step back with one of the books I’m reading this year and re-connecting with an epic. I read the Mahabharata while I was growing up. I loved mythology, fairy tales, princes and princesses while I was growing up and found one of the great epics of India early in my childhood. it colored my writing and like many of my fellow writers, I was accused of plagiarism in grade school. This year I wanted to go back and read the story again with fresh eyes. What can I get out of it with my modern values? How will I look at another time when gods and men roamed the vast realms together, constantly interacting in a balance of power and hierarchy?
What things stay the same in the morals of the story? What things are different? For many this is not mythology but a history. A great foundation of culture and archaeology, which for a person who double majored in English and Classical History, this is pretty much a nerd-fest. But how can this story which was told thousands of years ago help my writing? What can this adventure teach me about myself and about the human condition in general?
I’m pretty eager to see what comes of sharing what I read and my realizations on it. This epic has been like a good dream that you remember and that tugs on the fuzzy edges of your memory every so often, teasing you with a nostalgia that feels warm and welcoming. I always felt like I was “too busy” to give the story the time that it deserved. But it looks like 2015 is the year of the epic adventure.
I can’t wait to dive in. I hope you’ll stay tuned and take the plunge with me. If nothing else it promises to be a damn good story 🙂
~Ava
Poets have told it before, poets are telling it now, other poets shall tell this history on Earth, for all time to come…
—Mahabharata
Roses and Whimsy 
Good luck on this new adventure. I’ve been to India numerous times, studied meditation, and still practice yoga. I believe gods and humans still roam our world together. Just differently than in the stories perhaps. But can’t you feel sometimes when an angel, or whatever, touches you in some way–finds you a parking space, runs you into someone, or opens you up in some way? Synchronicity is highly over rated.
I absolutely agree with you. I’ve been to India twice, meditation and yoga are in my blood, and it’s like no matter what I do I just can’t really live without them. There’s no mistaking those times when you feel that “otherness” around you. Grace, euphoria, however you want to describe it, you can feel it when you are connected to divine energy that somehow lets you know that you are exactly where you are meant to be. So, you’re absolutely right. The divine energy is always among us, even if we can’t see with the eyes the form. Super mystical realization. I love it
India is so deep, intense, and layered. I think this will be an excellent serial series Avery, and I look forward to reading more from you about it.
Oh indeed the bliss of meditation.