Limbo

Since my premiere post, I have been in a state of limbo, if you will.

Thankfully, my India visa was approved (one year, multiple entry) and I heard from my friend in Mumbai with an invite to consider his home my home~base while in India.

A very generous offer and one I am quite grateful for, although it has sparked a bit of confusion and reconsideration of travel plans...not a bad thing, by any means, but I am quite a "planner" & often unexpected changes in plans leave me shaken, unsure, confused.

So I am now doing deeper research on Mumbai & vicinity & finding a lot of fascinating places to explore in the region of Malabar Hill and South Mumbai (more details to come in weeks ahead as new plans form).

I have not yet bought my flight tickets, which I had hoped (and planned) to do by this past Wednesday. I had to ask for a cash advance, sent by PayPal, to clear, and am now in the midst of 3-5 business days hold while that is transferred from PayPal to my bank!

My new "plan" is to purchase the ticket by Thursday of this week (which also happens to be my 41st birthday!)

Perhaps there will also be a fortuitous airfare sale waiting for me.

Sacred Sojourns: Photos & Ponderings from Holy Places

While I have never been an overtly religious person, somehow a deep sense of spiritualty, or perhaps mysticism, has always been an integral part of my personality.
I have always been hungry for a sense of connection with the divine, and am drawn to ancient religious sites as well as religious rituals.
Although raised in a Protestant (Lutheran ELCA) church, during my teenage years I became drawn to older traditions, not necessarily limited to Christianity...and more to the rituals than the beliefs, for some unknown reason.
Perhaps I have always drawn a sense of comfort from them?
I liked the idea of burning incense to send prayers to heaven, the use of icons and medals bearing images of holy personages.
On several extended trips to Ireland and the UK, I visited numerous early Christian sites...abbeys, cloisters, early cathedrals...as well as pagan sites including stone circles and Neolithic tombs.
In the silent presence of stone, I felt something "greater than"...a sense of continuity and purpose, if not a plan. Perhaps a connection with people who actually DID believe.

And now, just over a week from my 41st birthday, I am embarking on a quest to seek out spiritual places from foreign cultures.
I don't know exactly what I am looking for and can't even begin to guess what I will find.
I do not hope to find God.
Perhaps I am looking for a deeper faith in humanity, having had a long string of negative experiences with my fellow man.

And due to a string of apparent coincidences, the first stop on my journey is among some of the oldest cultures on the planet...the Hindus and Buddhists of India.
You can read some of the planning details and dates for this trip in my most recent entries at Just Real Life

This blog will be dedicated to my plans and preparations for this journey as well as my observations on spirituality, images of holy places, and links to relevant websites.
And, of course, to what happens to me when I actually reach my destinations, and, perhaps evn ...my destiny.