My love held my hands

Gently guiding me down the mountain slope

A mountain wedding dance

Majestic snow-capped Himalayas

The esteemed guests of honour,

Witnesses to our marriage.

I felt young, my spirit free, full of boundless love.

My heart exploded with life.

Trekking boots crunching rocks beneath

Became delicate satin slippers

My man held my hands high as he negotiated the safest path

Hiking clothes and backpack 

Morphed into floating snow-white garments.

A goddess and her handsome white-haired man.

I beamed at fellow pilgrims,

My face aglow with sheer delight.

Chants of 1000 monks ringing in my ears.

The smell of spicy incense wafting 

The taste of fresh mountain air enticing.

A pure white Temple decorated with prayer flags

Our final destination.

A sacred place with a cave below it.

A cave where Gurus meditated 

Bodivista obtained.

My dance partner, unaware of my state of bliss,

Descended deep into the cave,

In search of ancient knowledge

To pay respect to the Buddha and keepers of a

sacred faith.

I stretched my body on an elephant-shaped rock, 

worshipping the sun

Meditating, enthralled in a state of mindfulness.

Many decades ago, at dawn, in India

I stared in wonder but from a different perspective 

At this mountain range, these holy mountains.

I had come back to my spiritual home;

escorted by my handsome Prince.

Back to a land of mystery, steeped in history

A land of sacred, holy places, reincarnated gurus and

Buddha’s place of birth.

The Monk caretaker of the holy Stoopa declared

‘Everything is an illusion’.

The Himalayan wedding had been my delusion.

The illusion perhaps caused by rarefied air.

I imagined souls had been joined

Witnessed by the magical Himalayas, 

the necklace of Nepal.

Blessed by a multitude of gurus of eons ago.

Namaste Nepal; Thank you for the illusion of a Snow-White wedding for One.