Friday night we had a yummy dinner at India House, north of the hotel far enough to give me a blister on the back of my right heel. This was part of the dinner circle program arranged by the conference. Seven of us ate really good food in a loud, busy, bustling space. Chicago is a vibrant place with lots of shopping, crowds of people, tall buildings, urban parks … there’s something for everyone. And, of course, there’s pizza. Saturday night we went to a place for Chicago style pizza. It was yet another loud and busy place with a long wait. With this sort of hustle and bustle, the noise pollution is noticable. The El runs right by the Palmer House and even on the tenth floor with the windows closed we could hear it in our room. And there were incidents of noise in the hotel rooms neighboring ours.
The experience of being in the city was quite the contrast to the quiet peaceful state of the yoga rooms. Part of the conference message was to listen to the silence; to notice the difference of the quality of the silence before the chant starts and in that moment after the sound ends.