As Terrie Symons and I travel in India we are very conscious of the truth that travel broadens ones mind. As westerners we have an idea of what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is happiness, what is poverty, but here on the road we are challenged to open our minds to a totally different way of seeing the life.
As we travel from the inner city of Old Delhi to the countryside we go from potholed lanes crammed with traffic to wide freeways almost unfettered by traffic. We go from abject poverty (at least poverty in our minds) to bucolic farm lands with people going about their lives as they have for centuries. What is amazing to us is commonplace to them. This calls Terrie and I to release our pre-conceived notions of good and bad, scary and peaceful, joyful and sad. There is no place in this adventure on the other side of the world for judgment because everything we see and do is simply amazing.
The truth of the matter seems to be that we could have remained at our home and still found the same wonder of our everyday lives. This is not to say “don’t bother traveling,” far from it. What this experience says to me is that every moment of our lives is filled with the opportunity to see amazing things all around us; even from the porch of our own homes. It seems we have a tendency to close our eyes to the wonder which is all around us.
Hop a flight to a foreign land, or take a moment and look, really look into your own backyard. If you allow yourself, I think you will find It’s All So Amazing!
