So long

My time here in India is steadily drawing to a close and this will probably be my last post. I have a few days left working at Maitri and then I hit the road. Not the road home yet. No. There is still far to much to do and see here. In a few days I board a train bond for Haridwar in Northwestern India. I am going to the elephant reserve, the yoga capital of the universe, and the mountains. After that I am off to Nepal with some friends. It will be a few weeks before I board a plane for the States. I would like to be able to summarize my experience here into a few bullet points about what I have learned. But that would be like trying to summarize India itself in a few sentences, and that is impossible. Its roots are too deep, diverse, and intertwining. I am a little aprehensive about returing to the States; where we have so much. If we determine the validity of a reality by how many people are experiencing said reality and would agree that it is how the life is, then the reality experienced by those living in India is much more real than the one I have grown up in. One sixth, probably more, of the world population lives in India. Reality as experienced by Indians is proportionally much more real than my American life. If we ride this trian of logic to its conclusion then spending your days in the fields under the hot sun is much more real than working at a desk in an office. Cooking your meals over smouldering patties of cow dung that you have pressed yourself is much more real than sitting in a nice resturant and being waited upon. Squating and releaving yourself in a field, behind a building, or on the sidewalk is much more real than indoor plumbing. Poverty, disease, abuse, and neglect are much more real than abundance, health, care, and nurturing. Not that everyone suffers in India. A great many are healthy and happy regardless of their economic status. But it makes you think for sure. Perhaps I, we, should be more grateful for what we have. Or perhaps we do not need all that we have. Or maybe what we have is not what we really need. There is a lot of goodness in the world. Here in India you will find kindness and hospitality from the poorest of places. However, there is still a lot of room in the world for more kindness and brotherly/sisterly love. There is great need for it.

My gratitude and thanks to all the Winnie Ma'am, General Sir, Sonal Ma'am, the Maitri staff, and all the people of India. This has been incredible.