Our Year of Marriage, 2009
December 28, 2009
Hello Dear Friends and Family~
As the winter takes us deeper within and our calendar tells us a new year is beginning, Rama and I would like to reflect in gratitude upon this past year of blessings.
(Okay, it’s me, Malaena, doing the reflection, but Rama gives his consent for me to include him in the reminiscing!)
The beginning of the year was all wedding preparations, though the Oneness Blessing continued each week.
Thank you, Daryl for allowing us to use your space and for co-hosting deeksha nights while we were staying with my parents during that time! On Sri Bhagavan's and our nephew Ocean's birthday (and Yogananda Paramahansa's mahasamadhi), March 7, 2009, Rama and I were married in our neighbor Deb's backyard. And thanks to our landlords and friends Yoram and Ani, the festivities continued in their/our backyard throughout the weekend! Thank you to all of you who participated and made our celebration so special! (This is beginning to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech, but really, we are so grateful!)…Special thanks to my brother, Mike Mullen, who was our wedding coordinator, and to Kristen Cox who helped co-ordinate the day of the wedding. Of course there are many special thanks to be given, but we would especially like to shine a spotlight on our parents, Hugh & Jean Mullen and Parma & Sarojni Arya, who not only financed our wedding, but who have nurtured us throughout our lives to make it possible to find such a special union of love that Rama and I find in each other. The wedding weekend was truly magical!
On Monday, March 9, we got on an airplane and went half way around the world to India for our honeymoon! (Thanks to all of you again, who gifted us our honeymoon!) We were fortunate to visit and stay with many of Rama's family and friends throughout India. First stop was Mumbai (Bombay) where we stayed with family and arrived on the first day of Holi, the holiday of colors. A week later when we were in Goa, I discovered that this holiday is not one day in length, but seems to go on indefinitely! Even though Wikipedia says that a few days after the last full moon of winter (marking the beginning of spring) is the end of the festivities where they throw colored powder and water at you everywhere in the streets, make no mistake – Holi lives on in Goa way beyond a few days! I found this out when I innocently (against Rama’s warning not to) rolled down my cab window when someone knocked on it, and was instantly greeted with bright green and orange all over my face and white dress! (Luckily they were the type of colors that did not stain!) Needless to say, Goa was colorful and delightful. We stayed in a bungalow on what was practically our own private beach. We took a day trip on a motorcycle to another town where we hiked to a place where you could put clay mud all over your body (and we did) and then let it dry before jumping in a nearby lake to wash it off. This was not far from a beautiful beach. Most of it was touristy, until we found the trail to the mud where mostly only Indian people seemed to be. It’s a great secret that I don’t think you’ll find in a guide book. We were tipped off by a British man who was walking on “our private beach”! If you are ever in Goa, I highly recommend our private beach to you! Check out Meem’s Arabian Sea at http://meemsbeachresort.com. Oh, and I got a massage nearly every day while in Goa. I particularly liked the Tibetan massage after a long motorcycle ride!
After saying goodbye to beautiful Goa, we went to New Delhi and the Taj Mahal where we had a special private tour. I mean, our tour guide had a whistle and made people move out of our way in order to allow us to get views of different parts of the famous mausoleum! Yes, the Taj Mahal is a tomb and a dedication to the Queen -- not a palace of love, as I had thought. However, Rama and I felt it was the king's testimony of his love for his queen, as her tomb was built in the center of one of the most spectacular architectural sites known to humans (one of the 7 Wonders of the World), so in a sense it was a palace of love after all!
After being graciously received by friends and relatives in Agra (where the Taj Mahal stands) and in New Delhi, we were off to Chennai for the rest of our stay in India. Our friend Ed was actually there, and he and Rama spent a few days working at a convention. The plan was for me to go to the Oneness Temple a couple hours north of Chennai while Ed and Rama worked, but I couldn’t seem to leave the 5 star hotel! Every time they’d come home from their day at the convention, they would find me still in the hotel! I kept saying, “I need to get out there into India.” And Rama would say, “You are in India.” And I would say, “This is NOT India, but I LOVE IT HERE!!!” The funny thing is that at the time I was enthralled by a book called Anastasia, a true story (supposedly) about a woman who lives in the Siberian forest. She suggests you read the book in a natural setting yourself. And there I was by the poolside on the rooftop of a 5 star hotel in the middle of a city in India reading about being one with nature!
So, after almost a week in a 5 star hotel, Rama and I ventured back out into India and went to the Oneness Temple together. We stayed a couple days with a beautiful woman who lives right by the Temple and has dedicated her life to the vision of Sri AmmaBhagavan. Then we went to Neemam for a night in the hopes of seeing Amma, but that didn’t quite pan out. Rama was sort of following me around at that point, but was a good sport about it all! We enjoyed ourselves no matter what, and ended up back in Chennai – yes, at our favorite 5 star hotel! We got to visit another relative (or friend of the family – I am never quite sure which it is, as in India everyone seems to be family!). And then we flew from Chennai to Bangalore where we had a 12 hour layover. So, we got into a bus and went into the city, luggage and all! Somehow, after toting our luggage half way across the city, we managed to check it at a store. Then we whisked away to a mall down the street and watched a movie (I think it was a bad one, because I can’t even remember what it was!) Even though lugging our stuff around the city was challenging, I remember thinking this was the most beautiful Indian city I’d been in yet (other than Fort Cochin, Kerala and Pondicherry, my favorite cities from my last trip to India). I was trying to figure out why I thought it was so beautiful and then I realized that it was the trees! This city (at least all the places we were at in the city) had the most magnificent trees!!! There were all sorts of different old and grand trees spreading their branched wings over the entire city. At least, that’s the way I remember it! Indeed, it was a phenomenal trip altogether and we were satiated and ready to have airplane wings fly us home, where we re-discovered our gratitude for home sweet home.
Stepping back onto our property was amazing to me. I had forgotten how powerful the energies of our “Tarzana Oneness Center” were. Shortly after being home, we jumped right back into our busy and fulfilling lives. Rama resumed work as an IT consultant and worked on his multiple business projects. He also continued developing his Super Intention Practice which has been successful in helping many people. Rama also has traveled a lot selling the Life Beat Products, a phenomenal product that Rama has found hugely helpful alongside the Super Intention Practice (http://ramavision.com/lifbeat.html). And I got a job at a Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Center in Malibu, working as a massage therapist. That did not last too long, though I truly enjoyed the clientele. I just so much prefer working for myself (for many reasons). Ever since, I’ve been very busy with private massage clients as well as doula clients. (I’m a doula, which is someone who supports a pregnant woman – and her partner -- through labor and birth.) And of course we continue to host events at our place and share the Oneness Blessing. Raw food has been an integral part of my life this past year, thanks to friend and mentor Lou Corona. Rama and I enjoyed the Raw Spirit Festival in Santa Barbara (although we preferred the one in Sedona last year).
In August I went to Kansas City to lead an Oneness workshop and to see a dear college friend who set it up for me. Upon my return from Kansas City at the end of August, I went straight to a birth. 2 more births followed shortly afterward (within a few weeks period). My days and nights began to blur together during and after these timeless births. Just when I was beginning to get on a regular schedule again (I actually created a web page called “The Early Bird Post”, and was beginning to get on a morning schedule and encouraging others to join me), I got called to another birth – a beautiful home birth! And ever since, I have been a “night owl”, very much like I have always remembered myself to be!
And as this night owl is finishing writing this at 2:30 AM… a few more memories from this past year float to the surface of my (beginning to stream) consciousness:
There’s been lots of time with family, despite our busy schedules. GG, my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital and nursing home a couple times and is now living at home once again with my parents. Though it hasn’t been easy for any of us, especially my parents, it is wonderful to experience a family who is healthy and who truly cares about each other. (That would be my family! I don’t know when I realized how wonderful my family was, or if it was just the transformations within myself that allowed me to have a new perception about my family…for truly, I don’t think my family has changed that much, and yet, it is like I am experiencing them, and all my relationships, through a new lens…) Our “healthy” family (the same family that once was the source of all my pain and agony – as is the case with most of us!) was noticed by friends who came to our intimate family Christmas celebration. They said they had never witnessed a family opening their gifts in such a loving, healthy way. I myself didn’t even see it that way. I was just enjoying the experience of giving and receiving. When it was noted, it dawned on me just how lucky I am to have such a magnificent family and to love myself so deeply that I can so easily accept those around me (let me tell you, this was not always the case!). And when Rama’s parents were with us for his birthday party celebration, I also realized how lucky I am to have such beautiful in-laws. I thought of this as I was going out to some clients and Rama’s dad announced that he and Rama’s mom were going to peel all of our garlic cloves and put them in a bag for us while I was at work! What a thoughtful thing! Such a small thing, but I tell you, I think of them each time I grab for garlic for one of my recipes!
Many other things have occurred during this past year.
The Oneness Movement has had many transformations and now weekend courses are being offered in most countries throughout the world where you can become an Oneness Blessing Giver within a weekend. It is very exciting, and I plan to go to India in the New Year to become an Oneness Trainer so that I can offer these courses and help initiate people into becoming Oneness Blessing Givers. And Rama and I have been married for almost 1 year! We hosted our first Thanksgiving Dinner, which was delightful. Married life is beautiful, to answer the question many of you have asked us over and over! We are very much enjoying each other and our beautiful community.
If there is anything we have forgotten to mention in this very long synopsis of our year, know that it is written in our hearts, for that is the place we truly reside.
Thank you for adding to our abundance and joy!
We love you and shower you with blessings, as you have done for us,
Malaena and Rama Arya
