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It was so enjoyable to arrive in Bloomington after a lovely Adi Shakti Puja. We were able to sleep in later than normal, but quickly gathered for morning meditation once everyone was awake. The talk of Shri Mataji was one which I had never seen before. It was an old talk where mother was teaching a small group of yogis the proper way to wash and massage her feet. I have often heard my aunties and uncles tell about the initial days with mother, but it was whacky to actually see that type of experience on tape. Also, it was really funny to see some of my close aunties and uncles as young seekers with really long hair- after the initial shock, we couldn�t help but laugh.

After meditation and breakfast, we all went outside beside a lake near the house to do a collective camphor treatment since we were feeling a little off that day. With some difficulty with running out of matches since the wind was not cooperative, we found a lighter and everyone had a turn with the camphor. It was so sunny that by the end of the treatment everyone wanted to run into the lake, but since it was a residential lake - we were not allowed to do so. No one could understand how it would be off limits to go swimming in such a big, blue lake - oh well.

As soon as I came into the house after the camphor, Sheng-Chia had set up her computer so that we could watch mother speak at this year�s Adi Shakti Puja in Cabella. So we all gathered around the tv screen (the boys were able to connect the computer to the tv monitor so we could have a big screen to watch the talk on) to hear mother speak about love and the adi shakti power. After the talk everyone was very happy to see mother looking so healthy and happy.

During lunch provided by Aunty Fariba and Saraswati, we started to watch an Indian Bollywood movie called Mein Hona. It was another classic movie which we as westerners could not help laughing our heads at. Everyone was enjoying themselves, even though the boys did not want to admit that they were entertained by such a ridiculous movie. Although we had only watched part of the movie, it was soon time to leave Saraswati�s house to go to the park to give realization.

A few yuvas and aunties went to go postering while a group of us stayed back at the park to give realization. Since the majority of people weren�t supposed to arrive at the park till after the work hours, we had a lovely time singing bhajans, dancing to bhangara beats in the field, and playing a game called bitty bitty bop. I have never laughed so hard as when we were playing bitty bitty bop. It was so funny to see Dennis and Jeremy pretend to be flamenco dancers. We were having a difficult time attracting people to come try the meditation, when four boys finally thought it would be entertaining to try to meditate. I�m not sure whether they actually felt anything, but after they left more people started to come and try to meditate.

Soon after, the group who postered came back with popsicles and juice to refresh us before we started to sing bhajan after bhajan, with drums blasting and voices booming. A few Indian couples were attracted by the bhajans to receive their realization- they were so impressed by our ability to sing Indian bhajans and the boy�s continuous drum beats. Then it was past time to leave so we packed up after enjoying one last bhajan to go back for a delicious barbeque at the house prepared by Uncle and Yassir.

Once everyone was full and content from dinner, Uncle came out with a few tricks/games for us to figure out. The most entertaining trick was when two people were tied together with a string and had to figure out the way to detangle from each other. We spent hours laughing at the crazy forms people found themselves in while trying to figure out how to become free of each other. After so much time was spent trying to figure out the trick, Jeremy and Chris found the solution in less than a minute. I had so much fun watching the games; it was really a collective effort. After a lot of laughter and fun we all went to bed.

Today Sonia�s mother, aunty Fariba joined us.

Julia (Pittsburgh, PA)