North Pole Journey - Day Seven

Day Seven: Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Performance at Inuksuk High School IQALUIT

We fly back to Toronto today, but first, we have one last stop. I am scheduled to perform and Satish will present his fabric at Iqaluit's Inuksuk High School at 11am. It is already 8am. We must check out of the hotel and head up the hill for my sound check, costume change and walk through the show in a space I have not yet seen. Satish has a few personal pieces to tend to and encourages us to go ahead. He knows it takes me an hour and a half just to get into costume.

Our taxi pulls up to a large, electric blue building that looks like a large block of Lego, marked only by a few small, circular windows. The day has already begun for students. The halls are empty as we walk towards the administration offices to check in. I feel a sense of familiarity here. I remember this, the feeling of hormones and agitation in the air, the tension between the students feeling “I really don’t care but I have to be here” and “this is where my best friends hang” – and the teachers doing the best they can in jobs that are not easy.

Sunanda and I are shown into my makeshift dressing room, a small office that appears to be the guidance counselor’s office. The bookshelves are lined with information about birth control methods and tools for teenage pregnancy and parenting techniques. Here Sunanda begins to unpack the costume elements as I join Rishi for sound check.

Rishi is in the auditorium with two drama students. They are doing their best to tweak the sound system so that my music fills the space and feels juicy. I walk over to sing into the mic. There I tweak some knobs and bring to life a mixer covered in dust, with hidden magic elements these students knew nothing about. We are in better technical shape than I had thought. This will go over well. The sound is good.

I head back to the dressing room where Sunanda and I launch into transforming me into the mythic creature Natamba. The drama teacher has told us that her students are really excited about the show, since she told them I am a cross between Lady Gaga and Madonna.

The school bell rings and triggers a Pavlovian response in me. A feeling of excitement and freedom surges through my body. The halls fill with noisy, boisterous, vibrantly alive students who emerge from small rooms. Soon the auditorium is flooded with dynamic bodies full of the very hormones I felt pulsating through the halls when I first walked in. I peek out of my dressing room door and see a room agitated and full of energy. This is fabulous. I am ready.

The lights go out and Rishi walks on. He announces my presence and shares a brief introduction to the meaning of my trip. I walk through the cheer and break into song. The crowd is generous, palpable and vital.

After my four songs, I call over the mic for Satish, who I had not seen since morning. In the dark room, he had been patiently waiting through my performance in the front row of the auditorium. He walks onto the stage and together we unveil his fabric, explaining his mission. The auditorium is silent as the students are glued to his presentation.

Then we open a dialogue and welcome questions. The one I get the most is about the wig and costume. This is never dull, especially now with this spontaneous wig creation on my head made of recycled mayonnaise lids! It’s a great green promo piece, I joke. Satish is asked about the breadth of his travels and where he goes next. The kids are clearly inspired by our presence and shout out “great work!” and “keep going!”. This is why we have come: to touch, to inspire, to heal, and to transform. Another success as we come to the end of our North Pole journey.

As I walk off stage, CBC TV is waiting. A producer had come to televise the show and now wants to ask questions. I love the feeling of being able to reach and touch many people through the media. We live in a blessed age where distance does not matter.

Rishi is busy redirecting various teenagers that surround us. As I leave the CBC interview, students ask for my autograph. The many faces show differing stories but all have the light of hope in their eyes.

I peel myself away from the group and slip back into the dressing room. Our flight leaves in just over an hour. Sunanda helps me get out of costume as quickly as possible and we hastily make our way into a cab.

HOMEWARD BOUND

This time however, we are not all going the same direction. Just as we came separately to Resolute Bay, now we go our separate ways. Satish is on his way to Ottawa while we go home to Toronto. After this adventure of a lifetime and working in such close camaraderie, sharing the common vision to serve our planet, leaving Satish is hard. We make sure he is safely on his flight and then run to ours.

Just as our trip started barely making it to our flight Northbound, we now return home barely making it onto this flight. When we left home, our delay getting to the plane was due to the amount of tasks we had to prepare for a completely unknown experience in a very short time. Perhaps too, it was an expression of some fear of the possibility of death we could meet in the journey. Now, the tight timeline to get to our flight feels like a result of us trying to savour every last morsel of this adventure of a lifetime.

Nunavut, we will greatly miss you. Your story moved us to come to the top of the world. Now, your story is part of our own personal story. Each one of us carries within us new-found love for the Inuit, deeper love for our planet, our Mother Earth and growing gratitude for the power of friendship. Individually we are strong. But together we are One Earth family.

North Pole Journey - Day Four, Part Two

EUREKA

Around midday, we land to refuel in the Canadian weather station Eureka, official population seven. As the plane lowers to the ground, I notice unusual animals in the distance that look like prehistoric woolly mammoths. As we deplane, the pilots tell us that we have landed near a heard of wild muskox. We are encouraged to take a closer look, so Sunanda, Rishi and I walk cautiously towards the heard. Their long, furry dark brown coats are layered with clusters of ice. A couple of beasts shake their heads, steam escaping from their nostrils in the rush of an exhale. They know they have onlookers. As though these creatures are the dark, rocky mountains that surround us come to life, a wild, untouched force feels clear in their presence.

Soon a truck pulls up to the plane. Two inhabitants of the weather station have arrived to greet us, offering us the use of the washrooms there if need be, while the pilots refuel. The three of us go quickly to be back in the sky about 20 minutes later. We still have another couple of hours until we reach our final destination.

THE ANGELS ARE WITH US

As the hours pass, the kilometers of vast, expansive scenery out the plane window is breathtaking. Throughout the flight from Resolute Bay to Eureka and now here, heading northbound somewhere above uninhabited Canadian wild, we have been graced by clear skies. Below us I see rolling and plunging icy fiords with rock as black as night and snow a sparkling white as pure as crystal. We pass over dusty steel-blue-grey frozen ocean with broken sheets of pale white ice. When open water appears, it looks as black as the mountainsides, dark, deep and menacing. Certainly this landscape does not welcome humans. I am grateful, despite the beauty, for being in the relative safety of this tiny, warm plane.

Out of the window over my shoulder, I continually notice a shimmering light in the sky. It is as though a dancing ray has been following us since we departed this morning. It creates sharp shards of golden beams that pierce the sky, then grow into a fiery expanse. I lean into Sunanda and suggest that Archangel Ariel is with us. For sure, this plane, that I would call Grace, feels escorted by angels. Filled with prayers, mantras and healing intentions, there is a harmonious presence in us all, a surrender to this experience.

NATAMBA

I notice the co-pilot Mark looking back at us from the cockpit to catch our attention. He signals it is about an hour until we land. Sunanda and I pull open our bags and get out hairpins, brushes, makeup, mirrors, costume and the wig. It is time for me to get ready for my performance and transform into Natamba, the Avalonian Goddess from my show. Using the petrol barrels as our tabletop, carefully and skillfully, Sunanda and I manage to paint my face, tie up my hair, place the new, makeshift wig on my head and clothe me fully in a gold flight suit, made especially for this trip.

Natamba to me is much more than an entertainment character. She represents the Cosmic Intelligence, the highest good in us all. The embodiment of I AM consciousness, she is a multidimensional co-creator of the most potent kind. On Earth to serve the evolution of all beings, it is perfectly fitting that ‘she’ will perform my songs at the North Pole. In effect, this is the journey of Natamba to the top of the world.

The plane starts to make its descent. Sunanda and I quickly wrap up our wardrobe preparations. Rishi gets his video gear ready. As we land, we know we only have a three-hour window to do all we have come to do, otherwise jeopardizing our safe return tonight. The sun sets very early. As it is already mid-afternoon, we must work very quickly.

As we land, Mark, already on the ground, opens our cabin door to help us deplane as it is a five-foot descent down slippery stairs. To his surprise, he looks up and sees Natamba in full costume emerging from the dark out of the cabin door hole. Amazed, he takes a few steps back and says: “Wow! THAT is cool!” 

Sunanda, Rishi and I climbed into the plane in the wee hours this morning. Five hours later, while the pilots focused on navigating by paper maps over the magnetic north pole, magic had been taking place within the cabin. Now a new character has emerged, transformed during the journey. Natamba, the embodiment of I Am consciousness, a representative of the Cosmic Intelligence, will sing to the Mother Earth and for all beings at the top of the world. Surely this is a most unusual adventure. 

Back from hiatus, and North Pole Journey Day Three Part Three

I hope everyone has had a restful Christmas holiday. Thank you for your patience while I took a wee hiatus from this blog in order to do some inner work in preparation for the New Year.

In 2011, I will share here many more short and hopefully helpful blog entries intended to support your personal I AM journey so that you may live in the Positive Possibilities. Over the next couple of weeks, I will respectfully conclude the recounting of my life-changing journey to the North Pole, after which I will share new, inspirational material.

For me, 2010 was a year of clearing the deck and building solid foundations. This January finds me more focused than ever as I look to build upon what now feels like a strong base. I believe that with a true heart, a clear mind and focused actions, dreams are realized. In this entry, I share a story from the North Pole that I feel illustrates the benefits of focused determination. May it inspire you so that 2011 becomes your best year yet.

Namaste,

Parvati

Day Three: Saturday September 25, 2010

Part Three

We return from visiting the thousand-year-old Inuit village that overlooks the Resolute Bay Memorial, ready to prepare for our final journey to the North Pole tomorrow morning. As Meghan’s vehicle rolls up to the inn, Sunanda and Rishi jump out of the side of the van and immediately get to work setting up our tent. We need to test it in this weather and icy ground. It will be even colder at the North Pole and we will have little time or resources there to deal with technical difficulties. We must be ready.

I go inside the inn to review my audio gear, double check my music backing tracks and look through the costume pieces for my performance tomorrow in -25C weather. The boombox to play the backing tracks and the golden wig that brings my character Natamba to life are yet undelivered by air, missing since we checked them in at the Toronto airport.

A line from one of my songs (yet to be released on an album) goes around in my head: There is gold in the dark as I bow down. I think of the humility of traditional cultures faced with the force of Nature and the gratitude for what one had. I think of the gold we find within as we bow down in the dark of winter to find the light within. I know this light exists within everyone around the world. Here in the Arctic, I know the Inuit have great teachings on how to find light in the dark and how to find tremendous courage, the will to survive when faced with adversity.

Rishi and Sunanda come in from the cold, seeming confident that our gear will work well during tomorrow’s Arctic trek. I let Sunanda know that we still don’t have the boom box or the wig. Sunanda, who has been following up daily with the airport, feels confident that our lost luggage will turn up on the only flight today from Iqaluit, which arrives around 9pm in Resolute Bay.

We sit down together with Satish Sikha in the kitchen and enjoy the company over tea while dinner is prepared. The inn-keepers Chris and Meghan have created a feast for us in celebration of our departure tomorrow for the North Pole. We are served a full turkey dinner.

As the meal comes to a close, Meghan gestures to Sunanda that it is time to go to the airport to collect our luggage. They head out, while Rishi and I review my technical findings regarding the audio and video gear for tomorrow’s journey.

About an hour later, Sunanda returns from the airport with a look of shock and horror carved in her frozen face. The wig and the boombox were not on the flight. That was the last flight arriving in Resolute Bay before we leave tomorrow morning. Despite all her efforts to ensure the luggage arrived on time, we are left in an awkward situation. So much work, money and effort has gone into this performance at the top of the world. And now, essential pieces for the show are missing.

I waste no time thinking about what is lost and fly into action. We left Toronto with a back-up audio system, so Rishi and I quickly discuss the plan to use an alternative music sources for the performance. But the wig…that is essential and irreplaceable. What to do? Like the crown that creates a queen, like the halo that creates an angel, the character Natamba, a gold ray multidimensional being that embodies the essence of I AM consciousness, must have her top piece. The performance would not be complete without it. And we have traveled so far for this…

I feel a hot, lava-like force run up my spine. I think to myself: We leave at dawn. Natamba needs a wig. This is not rocket science. I can build one now. I look at Meghan and tell her I want to build a wig. Surprisingly, she rolls with the idea and springs into action. I know there is no synthetic hair or lightweight plastic tubing to create anything as elaborate as the wig from Toronto, but I don’t care. I am completely determined that in this high Arctic desert, in what feels like the middle of nowhere, with limited supplies, there has to be a way to create a new headpiece for Natamba tonight.

I remember that Sunanda and I thought to pack extra gold fabric, a needle and thread and a glue gun for potential costume emergencies. I ask Sunanda to please go and get these. I let Meghan know that we need something to create round shapes over which I will weave the gold fabric. Meghan looks at me with a look that somehow said, You are completely crazy and this is so much fun.

Throughout this, I did not notice that Louisa and Lisa, the gifted Inuit healers we had met a couple days ago, had stopped by the inn. Rishi had gone to greet them and show them in. He and I had asked them after our last visit if we could capture some of their wisdom on video. Rishi, Lisa and Louisa disappear into the lounge upstairs to set up the interview.

Meghan and I rummage through the kitchen and the storage room just behind it. After attempts at creating tubing with pasta and string, Styrofoam and cat-5 internet cable, finally we discover that a sharp knife will turn mayonnaise tub lids and gravy take-away lids into the circular shapes we need. The internet cables help to give strength to the gravy lids. Duct tape holds the circular pieces together.

Sunanda and I cut up the gold fabric into thin strips and wrap the plastic lids with the shimmering gold, held together by the needle and thread and the hot glue gun we had brought from Toronto. After a few hours of focused work, a new version of Natamba’s wig is born, one that is now made especially for this North Pole adventure.

It is 2:30am. Lisa and Louisa have long since completed the interview and returned home. We pack up the last bits of gear in preparation for a quick start in the morning. Now we must get some sleep. In just four hours we will rise to make the trek of a lifetime to the top of the world.