The Moment
Thursday, July 16, 2009
I'm not really sure why I love this shot so much...
Maybe because it brings me back to the moment that I snapped it; squeezed in tight with my mom on a bicycle rickshaw riding wildly through the streets of Delhi. It was her first trip to India and we had just stepped off the plane. It was just hours before we boarded a bus en route to Nepal.
I also love bananas so maybe it's just that. Either way, this picture takes me there– wide-eyed, alone and overwhelmed in the middle of a city I don't know very well, senses bombarded, searching for beauty and peace and hope and finding it on the carts overflowing with cucumbers and tomatoes and lemons and guavas and bananas and in the warm eyes of the vendors roaming the streets and asking me if I'd like one.
I am finally slowing down, centering myself, and preparing for the trip ahead. I'm overwhelmed, I'm anxious and apprehensive and I keep thinking about how there's still so much to do. There's always so much to do. I stress about all the things I "should" have done while I was here. I remember how much I love my life, my family, my friends, and the people who I've had the amazing opportunity to meet this time around. I love my bed. I love the quiet of my backyard. I love and feel blessed that I have this life to come home to; this home that supports and embraces me.
I'm reminding myself to stop and stand still and be present in the moment. I am appreciating stillness and solitude. I am savoring my lice free hair. I am soaking in every cup of good coffee, every mouth-watering meal, every moment with a friend, every hot bath, every mint chocolate chip oreo sundae... I could go on and on.
I am preparing myself to make this transition into another world and another life back in Nepal.
Knowing what the destination is comforts me.
Thinking about holding the children in my arms and hearing their giggles brings me joy.
But knowing what the trip and the travel entails makes me anxious,
And knowing that I'm leaving this other world behind again, this world that is still so much a part of me, that has made me so much of who I am makes me sad.