Sunday Revelations August 29, 2010

An Elephant Bath during my trip to South East Asia

I’m kind of a dreamer. Very rarely am I actually in the moment, something has to be damn exciting for me to come down out of my head and be interested. Yesterday, I was on the phone with my best friend, and I spaced out for probably 5 minutes- not hearing a word she said. Sorry. I’m a bad friend.

But all that living in my head makes me 1. self involved 2. not very interesting and 3. tired.

One of the reasons I love traveling is that I get out of my head, and I look around. I experience, I don’t just dream about the fabulous life I’m going to have in New York city, which occupies about 90% of my head space.

Of all the things I learned about the world, and myself, on my trip- the biggest one is that life is beautiful. I know, it’s a little cliché, but clichés are clichés for a reason, right? There has to be a fundamental truth about them for them to have stuck around. And the fact is, life is beautiful. It’s graceful, and people- all people- have the same experiences. Everyone falls in love, everyone has drama, everyone deals with middle school girls. It’s a human thing. I feel more connected to the entire world than I did before I left. I feel less lonely, all the time, knowing that everyone on the planet has the same feelings. Human experience doesn’t just apply to westernized, developed, cultures. I think, on some level, I always knew that, but it was illustrated very clearly during my trip.

I think anytime you have a moment with someone where you realize, on a really true level, that you feel the same way as them, is a magical moment. That’s why we’re so drawn to falling in love, and laughing, and even crying with people. It’s in those moments when you don’t feel alone, when you know that you’re in a brotherhood (or sisterhood) with 6 Billion other people, that you are connected to something larger- and I think people crave that. We’re not meant to be alone, and in this world where everything we’ve created under the guise of being social actually makes us more alone, a moment of connection with someone is sacred.

The connections I made with people from all over the states, and all over the world, are my most treasured souvenirs from my trip. I really feel changed and enlightened by every person I met over there. So thank you, universe, for giving me this opportunity to realize that we really are all in this together.