Ella Belenky

My home for the past month has been in a place far from Vermont, the Himalayas. Although the contrast of the East to the West is evident almost every moment here, I find myself slowly growing accustomed to the differences to my life back in Cabot. I am comforted by the vastness of the mountains that surround me, scraping the sky, soaring higher and higher, their peaks are out of sight. I love the feeling that I get as I stand next to these monsters of land. I am so miniscule as I stand at the base of these mountains, yet I am so enormous, so valiant standing at the top.

We returned back to SECMOL last week from our five-day trek and homestay. Staying with a Ladakhi family, in a Ladakhi household completely exposed me to a whole new side to where we are. The means of simplicity that these people live by is, to me, incredible. We hiked to villages that didn’t have roads leading to them. In areas this remote, yaks became the means of transportation. I remember staying in one household where our five-year old brother would help with chores around the house. He carried stacks of dried dung, and wood toward the room we were staying in so we could stay warm next to the stove throughout the night. Later in the evening, after dinner, we all danced to the scratchy tapes of Ladakhi pop songs that played off of the radio sitting by the bucket of water, used for washing. The Ladakhis are by far the hardest working, and most compassionate people that I have ever met. Their energy and resilience to us indolent Americans still seems amazing.

Days before our trek a woman from Leh came to SECMOL to lead us through a full day of Vipassana meditation. Sitting on my mat for hours on end gave me a chance to really process everything that has been happening over this past month. Being here at SECMOL I often forget the significance of my self-reflection. Ladakh is filled with so many aspects that seem so substantial to this trip that at times I find myself moving fast, never slowing down. I get so caught up in the desire to experience it all, that I forget the importance of letting it all sink in.
During meditation I thought a lot about the idea of reaching emptiness or enlightenment, a concept of Buddhism that we have been discussing a lot during our classes. Emptiness, like the law of karma, discusses how everything on Earth is interdependent. I like this concept, this idea that I am in a sense connected to everything around me, and everything is somehow connected with me.

I carry my Vermont pride and I stand with my feet firm in Ladakh.