India Feb. 17, 2000.... an old journal excerpt

UPDATE on an older blog post from 2010, but this is really about a journal entry from Feb. 2000: Now it's been 17 years and I just saw this post again... I wanted to share a little from my first time in India... It changed my life forever and I still feel the same 17 years later... Sigh....


It's been 11 years since I first started going to India. And oh how I love her. Her people, her energy, and her spirit have given so much joy, so much growth as well as a lot tears and bugs in my tummy, but we won't focus on that...

It was February 2000, I was 24 years old and so sick with amoebic dysentary. And sitting on the rooftop of my guesthouse in Dharamsala, thinking.... writing... wondering...

Here is an excerpt from my journal over 10 years ago, it was about one month before I was going to leave India after traveling there for 6 months:

February 17, 2000

"It makes me so sad when I think about leaving India. It's less than a month now and to think of all I have learned and experienced in the last 8 months.. Wow!! I realize it's just the beginning. I have so many ideas and dreams. I know the only way they will happen is if I make them. 'Everything is possible' as they say here in India.

I'm sitting on the rooftop of my guesthouse enjoying the mountains, the sun and the breeze. The air is clean and sweet as the mountains over power in the distance. How do I describe these feelings of happiness? I hope they don't fade with the new territory. I need to take all I've learned, seen, and experienced on this journey and make my life complete.

After 8 months of traveling alone, I know I have courage to conquer the challenges that lie ahead. The life here is easy, but the initial shock was not, getting through all that, helped me to develop a sense of empowerment which I hope continues.

I need to take this trip to another level, reach out and inform, support and push people to live their dreams. As I wrote to my parents last night. 'I am a dreamer. Their are few in this world who have the opportunities or courage to live their dreams, but the people I know who do, have few regrets and enjoy. And to me that's what this life on earth is all about... Being happy!!'

We tend to get caught up in the day to day and forget to live. We wake up each morning to a routine, not to a new day. Everyday is special and different, we must not forget that.

These are the things I need to remember when I return to the pressures of living in the United States."

For me, it's fun to read my old journal entries and go back to what I was thinking then as a 24 year old. The thoughts that swept my mind. And how some things change and others don't.. In my next few blog entries. I am going to find a few more of these and post for you to read. Plus, I have exciting new jewelry.. We are selling it with the idea of giving back. So stay tuned!