The Work

Getting closer to India is presenting a few challenges. The easy part was waking up one morning with the revelation in my mind.

You are going to India.

Now, I don't know anything about anything, but I woke up that March 14th with the most calm and doubtless knowledge, not a hunch, not a wishful thought, not a fleeting fantasy. I didn't ask why. I had no idea where or when or how.

Hm, I am going to India. Oh, OK then.

Hours later, several events coincided to provide a little more insight on what to do with this knowledge. I went to church in a state of mind one might describe as a complete and total loss. I was on my way to support my dear sweet friend on her first attempt at overcoming stage fright at 8 o'clock in the morning. She needed the support and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. One foot after the other, just get there and be present. I found myself in the pews with several women I had never met but were obviously there for our friend's speech. They all looked as if they had just rolled out of bed, but had beaming faces and bristling energy all ready to reach out for kisses and hugs, knowing eye contact and hand squeezes. Well after all of that I was scooped and brought to brunch and introduced to everyone.
These women blew my mind. Absolutely. It was as though I were invited onto cloud #347 where several angels had gathered to answer all of my questions about life and love and what to do next, with a side of bacon.

So naturally I told them I was going to India and they were all "oh that is fantastic, when are you going, where will you be staying, how long will you be there, etc." and I was all "um, I don't know. I just found out I was going there yesterday." After about a split second of processing, one of the women told me she had someone I needed to meet who was actually only in town from India for two weeks and would be leaving in about 5 days. I said yes please, distributed my contact information and said I was totally available at anytime of day or night. Brunch wrapped up and I felt ready for anything. It's a good thing, too. Because I needed to be ready for what came next. Beware the Ides...

In a nutshell, what came next was a radical re-envisioning of my life and goals that I already knew was going to happen, but was still shocked by. It is hard to have some serious intuition powers AND a blissful child-like naivete at the same time, dontcha. The important thing to focus on here is the merciful freedom that entered my life clearing up a couple of things that were blocking my vector towards India. Now, I still have only a vague idea where my destination inside an enormous country is going to be, and the vaporous knowledge of why I am going materializes only a little more everyday, but I am so glad I had that revelation early or I might have needed a stunt double for the death defying leap from the sun roof of a speeding luxury sports car about to veer left onto the side of a high-speed train about to veer right.

That was the easy part. Now I am faced with budget, schedules, plane tickets, vaccinations, visas, selling my car, moving out of my apartment, securing a storage locker or selling everything I own (jury is still out on that one), taking the GRE, researching grad schools, working on my portfolio, eating as much Indian food as I can (mutter paneer, yum), working 9-5, vacationing in Portugal, volunteering for LIFT (more on this soon), and socializing with near and dear friends and family. Oy.

Thank God the weather is holding up. Yes, I know, it will snow tomorrow because I said that.