india, chapter 1...

I've been home almost a month and last Thursday I got out of the shower to see that the last drops of Henna were missing from my skin. It made me panic that I had lost Mother India or that she had lost me. It's time to put my adventure out there to share. Here are a few snippets from the many...

But first, the amount of gratitude and love I have for Kate for being exactly who she is and demonstrating generousity beyond comparison time and time again towards me is the singular most humbling and overwhelming emotion I can convey to you. She has changed my life yet again. I'm sure it won't be the last time.

And now some pictures...First the people...

I met this woman in a monastary in Varanasi. Her spirit was so powerful and calm. She felt so good to be around. When I left, she put her hands on my cheeks and held my face close to hers and spoke rapid Hindi, in what felt like, prayer.

This was a birthday party we were invited to in Varanasi as well. Our tour guide Ashok (who was truly a holy man that people dropped to their knees to touch his feet as he passed, in an energy of true gratitude and adoration) brought us to his niece's 18th birthday party, where his family served us food (which is rumored to have blessed us with Delhi Belly), sang us traditional Indian folk music, and made us one of them.

One day our friend, Poonam brought us through the different castes in Delhi. Our first stop was in a slum where 2 of her domestics lived. This experience and these children could very well top the list of favorite moments in India. They were so so much fun and so curious about my white skin and light eyes. We played. And despite the absolute poverty they were all living in, everyone seemed genuinely happy. They were all so anxious to show us their homes and insisted we sit on their beds as they served us the only biscuits they had. It was in this slum that I felt my heart open up more than I knew it could.


Sunrise on the Ganges River. 5:30 am. See all those people?


These were some of the many Indians, who asked to take pictures with us. This happened a lot and I really got use to it. This happened more at the tourist places like Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, and Siddhartha Stupa, where there were people from the South that had never seen white people in real life. There was a lot of poking and staring by many, many an Indian during our time there...and I actually got use to that too and began to just smile and hold my arm out for them so they could get a better look.


More on its way...The next chapter will be 'The Sights'!