so i looked at the mirror and saw the mystic clouds..

When you have time, you think about life. A few of my friends who have time like me are doing that along with me. We talk on the phone, we meet up, we spend hours talking about past and present lives. Surprising, these are successful women who are looking for meaning, for purposes, seeking clarity through confusions. And yes, everybody wants to get down to some volunteering work for the unfortunate or underprivileged.

So everybody has had some help in life. Be it going to a shrink, a tarot reader, astrologer, there is this uncertainly that seems to be pushing the younger generation to look for a solution. I suggested becoming a shrink or a psychologist is the career of the future. It's where the money is!

One friend took a course in counselling. So after the course she volunteered on weekends as a counsellor for victims of abuse, sometimes children. While she was doling out sessions in anger management and therapy for these victims of circumstances, she was finding the symptoms familiar. She slowly realised all these symptoms were present in her! That was that! She landed up at the shrink herself.

I wait my fate.

Smell of yesterday's dust

It had stopped raining and the evening looked beautiful. Cool and clean as I walked down the little lane near my house. The cluster of little wet houses with a few people leisurely taking a walk and two little children running after each other was delightful. It suddenly took me back to a long time ago. I was surprised how two days can be so connected. Different times different eras. And it struck me why living here brings me a strange peace. Childhood tugs at my heart. A glimpse of a time gone.

As a child, all I wanted was to get out of that little town, live in faraway lands, eat different food, lead a different life. Now I am doing exactly that.

And yet. Life has come a full circle. I savour every bit of nostalgia. I treasure every memory and try to relive it. I find comfort in the simple food of yesteryears. I am most comfortable with early mornings, a childhood habit. And the rains, they have some amazing memories.

What is it? Age? That makes one look back so much? Are we done with creating memories and now just look at re-living them... or is it a content life... we need nothing more...

Really!

Where the answers were blowing in the wind...

Parthenon


Apollo Temple and Oracle at Delphi


Ampitheatre at Acropolis


Monastery at Meteora


Street shopping, Athens


The Acropolis in Athen at night


Serving a gyro with a smile!

I didn't really believe the Greek guide when she pointed out a road far out in the valley. There was a crossroad too. Legend has it, she said, that Oedipus killed his father Laius, King of Thebes, just after the crossroad there.

And at Delphi, the place still felt so sacred. One could almost feel the power of the Oracle and the prophesies. This was the place responsible for changing the fate of man and nations alike in the olden days. I stood before the pillars that were the entrance to the Oracle and thought of anything that I may need the answer to... zilch! Why do I blank out at these times?!!

Beautiful people, beautiful places and amazing food. Life moved at an easy pace, with music, laughter, gyros, late nights and the acropolis towering over Athens. And then we went over to Turkey.

Bakhlava, kebabs, the majestic mosques and their beautiful minerets. We walked by the seaside, we crossed over to the Asian side and walked lanes and lanes of beautiful Turkish life. We got onto the Bosphorus cruise and at night checked out the amazing night life. But the most amazing thing was the sight of the sacred relics - the walking stick of Moses (yes, the one that parted the Red Sea!), Abraham's turban, the skull of John the Baptist, Prophet Mohammad's hair, his footprint on the famous stone, a handwritten letter by him...!!! I stared at it all spellbound.

And so another holiday ended. But it felt good to get back and get down to things I had lined up. Painting the house, making a few changes... something I had been wanting to do for the last 4-5 years. Changes that I need to take me to the next phase.