My husband and I just returned home from a two week trip to India.  Our time there was nothing short of life changing.  Our travels took us to Delhi, Rajasthan cities, Agra and Varanasi.  It was a packed itinerary from the moment we landed.  The sites foreigners are taken to happen to be in the older and poorer areas of each city we traveled to.  It was hard to see such sites and then go back to our five star hotel each evening.  How do these people survive without proper plumbing or clean water and food? How do they live with whole families living together in two rooms?  Why aren’t there more people, dogs and cows killed with the crazy traffic?  My questions are seemingly endless.  What we did experience was grace, kindness, smiles, welcoming spirits and a culture that treats fellow humans with utmost respect.  Many of these people we Westerners look at and think they have nothing yet they live as if they have everything.

I have been home for three days now.  My sleep patterns still have not fully recovered nor has my digestive system for that matter!  My dreams at night keep transporting me back to India as well.  Then there are the more than two thousand photos on my camera I am in the process of editing.  My body is here yet at least for now I still have one foot on the other side of the world.  I know that this trip will never leave me.  The sites, sounds, smells and tastes are now a part of me.

I am happy to be home at my computer.  I am grateful when I open my eyes and see my adorable pit bulls wagging their tails ready to start the day with us.  My lungs are enjoying the clean air again and my body is getting re-acquainted with exercise.

India, you are a part of me now.  Thank you for the gift.