Rinka….The Flower Girl
by Nancy West McGuire
Varanasi, India
February 2008
It was a birth…that night…lit by the moon…
I had been called here to the banks of the Ganges to be born…some 30 years ago…to a place I had only dreamed of….
Pulsating…energy…excitement….every cell alive…anticipation…joy….alive…and waiting to see…to breathe…on my own…out of the darkness and into the light…..down the narrow canal…that felt like I would never arrive….pushing forward…faster…faster…faster….like the beating of the drums all around me….the thrusting of the hips came faster…quicker…the sound reverberating off the walls that were wrapped around me…pushing, pushing, pushing further and further with only faith and trust to guide me….Rapture…
Smells…people…lights…prayer…joy…sadness…eyes wide open…loud….alive…holy…I had finally arrived…
Overwhelmed…I wept…crying as I was released…from the safety of the womb…into the energy that was electric and alive…and all I could do was cry…as I breathed for the first time…took in all that was there…before my eyes…the color…the air of excitement…the River….
Get on the boat…get on the boat….Confused…I was swept onto the boat…that would take me to a place of perspective…birth and death and rebirth…side by side…naturally…no pretense…raw….
“You must have a flower” she said….”You must”…..as she followed me on to the boat…seemingly, carefully, choosing just the right flower for me…
I got on the boat…and I wept…inconsolably wept…
As I wept…the little girl with the soulful eyes patted the seat next to her on the boat…lit by the full moon…against a backdrop of color, sound, birth, death, spirits rising….as if to say “Come here…rest…sit a spell”….and so I moved to her side…feeling comforted just in her presence….
“Why you crying?” said the little girl with the big basket of flowers.
“I am crying because I have dreamt of being here…right here for 30 years” I replied….
The flower girl looked as if she didn’t understand….
I went on….”A dream….I’ve had this dream…for 30 years…and now I’m here…and I can’t believe it…it’s like a really, really big wish. Have you ever had a dream?” I asked.
“I dream of being a flower girl…here…selling you flowers”
said she with beauty and depth and certainty…
as if she had sat there…
waiting for me…
knowing that I would come…
for 30 years….
February 2012
Nancy and Rinka, age 17…married…lives under an umbrella at the Main Ghat…
Join Nancy and me on our Journey to India this October, where we will explore some of the most exciting, potent and spiritual places in India. Together, we will venture into a world that most Westerners have not seen and meet people that will surely touch your hearts.
Roxanna Kopp Smith 