BLESSINGS

Let's kick off with a decent blessing as a true pilgrim should !

Ganesha is the elephant headed Hindu god subtitled "The Remover Of Obstacles" and therefore it is a good idea to have his blessings in this first post.

There is this thing about Ganesha and elephants I always wondered about.
The myth exists that elephants are terribly afraid of mice. I don't know if this is actually true. But if it is a myth the source might be found in images of our Hindu elephant god:

Hindu gods are often accompanied by animals as 'vehicles'. Ganesha is accompanied by a mouse or rat representing 'Desire to be controlled', for which reason Ganesha most of the time is sitting on or riding the rodent.
Also, Ganesha often appears dancing, Nritya-Ganapathi, creating the rhythm of the Universe.
These images combined might have suggested to an unknowing viewer from overseas in bygone times that we are looking at an elephant hysterically afraid of the small animal at his feet. And I am sure the archetype of the fat lady on the chair with a mouse in the kitchen is at least as old as that ... (see "Tom & Jerry" as recent reference).

Finally the BLESSINGS :