Annapoorna is the name of a Hindu goddess who nourishes and feeds (anna is grain and poorna  means full, in Sanskrit). Expressing love through food is a big part of Indian culture where mothers will painstakingly cook favorites for each member of the family, neighbors will exchange food gifts and no festival or celebration is complete without a feast. Yet, in my travels around the world and 52 rotations around the sun, I have never met anyone who channels Annapoorna as Harshida does. She has been cooking without a break for over eighteen years, for thousands of strangers who gather at her home every Wednesday for an Awakin Circle. She prepares a feast and offers it up with so much love that there are no words to describe the experience. If it was religious one might say it is a sacrament or prasad or communion but the only word I can think of is a blessing. Some of us who are blessed enough to be there often, commiserate on our tendencies to over-indulge in this abundance.  



This Wednesday, the Awakin circle theme of 'Adversity', the seed reading of the week, led to many stories from people of all ages, different ethnicities, diverse religious, cultural and geographic origins, who respectfully offered up their words and ears to each other in the simultaneously moving and steady circle. Afterwards, the feast eaten in silence was bursting with color, flavors and taste so much that I wished I could have photographed it. The greens grown in the back yard garden, the watermelon, berries and other fruits in bright summer colors, the mouthwatering daal, the perfectly cooked cauliflower and broccoli, the always creamy homemade yogurt, and the Harshida invented carrot and ginger cake with walnuts. An extra bit of the cake came home with me. I could not eat it without first saving it in the pixels you see above.

As I ate the meal, I felt all the love and abundance that I do at every
Awakin meal, but after the adversity stories, there was also a very deep sense of nourishment that overflowed. The meal had all the love that a mother puts into each meal which many of us have enjoyed in our lives. And it also had an extra quality of expressing boundless love that only the mother of all mothers, a goddess, maybe Annapoorna, might be able to provide. I tasted the love of all eighteen years of Harshida's selfless practice in serving it. I tasted the abundance in how it if offered with so much humility and joy. Harshida, you nourish my spirit and it is sheer grace to have you in my life. I want you and the world to know that. Thank you and hugs, for words or pictures can't really convey what I silently and graciously accept every time.  

The picture below is Harsida's homemade lemon pickle that she packed for me at another circle. This Pickle Jar Altar in my fridge reminds me everyday to practice emulating her :)