Every now and then I like to look at Lara Maiklem’s London Mudlark FB page, but my memory is Swiss Cheese and I forget all about it for months on end! Monday morning her page cropped up elsewhere, with an image of Ganesh…so I went to see
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1475905521239031&set=a.401083512054576&locale=en_GB
I didn’t know that the Thames was blessed as a sacred river for London’s Hindu community in the early 1970s, and was pleased to see this – far from their home-land, a sacred river to turn to with their awareness of how sacred all rivers are
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455147/is-a-river-alive-by-macfarlane-robert/9780241624814
Mike and I feel toward Ganesh in a friendly, appreciative way and we hope he feels the same towards us. I should explain that neither of us has a religion – we both know that The Universe is
and we accept varied manifestations of aspects of The Powers That Be.
Years ago when Mike was in a very difficult situation in his work we asked Ganesh, as remover of obstacles, to….remove obstacles, and….. it worked out.
We don’t see it as – sit back, do nothing, ask for help and it will all get sorted out for us – no – we both believe in thinking, assessing, taking action, but we also acknowledge that some help might come from…..LIFE.
And now to my point – when he was having those difficulties at work, I bought Mike a little statue of Ganesh, which we still have in our cupboard, in his wee shrine. When he’s cooking, Mike pours a little bit of – beer, wine, whisky, into Ganesh’s dish. The dish is a bit of ceramic we found on the beach.
Could all look like daft superstition, but here’s how I explained this approach to someone
“As you know, I don’t ‘pray to gods’, as such, I connect with Life, God, whatever folk want to call It, and acknowledge that this can have many aspects. It’s more to do with focusing on the aspect of LIFE which is relevant and needed, at any time.
If, however, the obstacles are of our own construction, well, that’s for us to deal with.
The Universe provides, but also, you may have come across the idea of ‘God helps those, who help themselves’. That’s a good one.”
Pouring the libations, connecting with the LIFE around us, can give a focus to our intentions or needs.
We also have a Ganesh tile which hangs on the wall in our hall-way – the entrance to our home.
Having seen Lara’s post, Mike filled Ganesh’s dish with water and a hope that, as a remover of obstacles, Ganesh might play a part in clearing our species of the clutter, muddle and confusion of the road we’re on now.
Maybe.
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