Par Avion: Khajuraho, India

Postcards with an edge sent from around the world.
"There's an old Hindu saying that wherever there is woman, God is worshipped and I find that sooooo groovy!!! What a great ending to my trip. 15 temples dedicated to the power of women!!! Beautiful, smart, creative, voluptous, playful, women! Loved it."

Postcard of: The Khajuraho Temples, Khajuraho, India, Devi Jagadamb Temple, 10th Century

Inspiration: Journeys End in Lovers Meeting

"Journey's end in lovers meeting."

William Shakespeare

Photo: Agra, India

Inspiration: The Highest Form of Recreation: Wake Up!

"We travel to wake up. Life is swift and hazy. We are habitual creatures, following mildly comfortable ruts. As Miguel de Unamuno said, “To fall into a habit is to cease to be.” The great religions, the poets, the philosophers, the guy at the corner store (if he stops to think about it) well tell us that we live most of our lives in a sleepy mist. Travel, like the best friend we’ll ever have, gives us a little slap, “Wake up! Be.”

We travel because it’s the highest form of re-creation. Every time we step out of life’s routine we have the chance, the challenge to re-create ourselves anew. To decide who we are, what we like, what we can’t stand, what we crave, what brings us joy, what repels and attracts us. We always have this fundamental chance, but we don’t usually grasp it. The good traveler, as opposed to the traveler who’s just getting cartered around, learns that this old personality is marvelously flexible, fantastically adaptable, fare more capacious than he ever thought. That we always have the power to choose, who we are, to re-create ourselves as we see fit. "

Credit: Geographic Expeditions, San Francisco

Photo: Udaipur, India

Inspiration: We Travel Because People Everywhere Are Wonderful? Of Course Not!

“We travel because people everywhere are wonderful. Always? Of course not. But ask the alert traveler, and she will tell you: as a species, humans are worth the effort of getting to know. As the old Moorish proverb says, “he who does not travel does not know the value of men.”

What about the moments of human exchange? The cab driver in Cairo who grandly, quietly refused payment. That man in Kashgar who took you home to meet the folks. The old fellow you played chess with in Tehran. The ladies in a mountain village who fed you dates and gossiped about men and painted your feet in the local style. The rough truck driver who cradled you like a baby when you had food poisoning in Shigatse. the forbidding looking Pthan man in Peshawar (yes, Peshawar) who suddenly smiled and said, “Welcome to my country, dear sir.”

Again and again, the human encounters are what we remember; they are balm to our souls. If travel teaches us nothing, it teaches us that human are lovely creatures. And we travel because, as an old Zen koan puts, “the whole world is medicine.” Medicine freely offered, medicine we need and have a right to. Medicine that cures us of alienation and the bondage of self-obsession. Medicine that helps us become whole and vibrant , that allows us to see the whole and vibrant world.”

Credit: Geographic Expeditions, San Francisco

Photo: Jaisalmer, India