From the Darkness to the Light

November 13 2023 Day 13

My bride and I were visited twice by Lakshmi during our wedding trip to Nepal. In my case, during a walk through a busy shopping district, I felt a wet tongue lick my hand and I turned to discover a small calf making its way down the street. In Meena’s case, en route to Everest Base Camp, she turned a corner to discover a cow waiting there in the trail for her whom she gave a pet.

A significant set of blessings, a couple meet ups with the Goddess of luck and good fortune’s avatar, the cow, within a couple days like that - something must have stuck as we keep on keeping on.

Looking for good luck.

I’m reminded of those days today as it is the third day of the five-day festival Tihar, or Deepawali, as it is known in Nepal. Western audiences may know the festival better, at least through the advertisements of fireworks and box stores like Home Depot, as Diwali.

Today is Gai Tihar and Lakshmi Puja, the most important day of the festival and the day that cows are shown gratitude. Day one is for crows. Day two is for dogs. Day four is for ox. And day five is reserved for the special bond between brothers and sisters.

(Disclaimer time: I once read that nailing down the specific rituals and meanings of Hindu holidays all comes down to region, town, even individual family. Every god and goddess plays multiple roles. Every practice develops individually out of other rituals. This is my lame way of saying, forgive me if I get some of this wrong.)

Anyway, we’ll celebrate today by laying out footsteps to welcome Lakshmi into our home. Goddess knows we could use all the luck we can get. And yesterday, we invited some neighbors over to shoot off some fountain fireworks and light up some heavy-duty sparklers. (Fireworks, I’d add, that I picked up thanks to a Diwali sale at a local fireworks joint!)

Lightin’ up the driveway!

Here’s the things about living in New Hampshire. Christmas is easy. It’s all around us, everywhere we look, a constant little drummer boy beat. Diwali (and Dashain and Holi) are not. We have to work to engage in them and I admit that I am not always as actively aware of how important and how much a part of my wife’s life these holidays are. I’m trying to be better.

We promised Little Bean that we’d not limit her access to rituals, that we’d try to provide her the richness of the best of both our upbringings; to give her the benefit of all of it, instead of only one option.

So, we carry on, one sparkler at a time, looking for blessings, looking out for each other, trying to seek out the light, always.