Day 17 – letting go
After the Taj Mahal we meet back at our hotel for a farewell rooftop lunch. We can see the minarets from here.
Lunch is delicious and rather than spend the time in sadness for our last day together, we are happily distracted by signing cards to all the amazing guides and hosts we’ve been gifted this trip.
After our meal Vishnu leads one last journal writing session. He reads several quotes on travel and asks us to write spontaneously on whichever one speaks to us. “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber. This one. Here’s what I wrote:
“Perhaps it’s the secret that I seek, knowing it will reveal itself in the most unique way. Often it comes wrapped in the contrary as many gifts do. And so often the destination rides home on my clothes, in my suitcase or secretly in a photo to be unwrapped at the most appropriate time.
“The secret destination is always inward and while it is said that you can’t find yourself by going to another place, I would counter that travel itself is the great revealer. The unfamiliar allows those parts of us, shadow or hidden, to emerge. We learn ourselves, we find our internal map home. And home is not a physical destination, but a residence within all situations.
“So off the map and into the world I travel again, unable to run home to grab something, unable to fix things with a paperclip or tincture from the corner store. I must find my inner pharmacy, my inner guide, my inner compass. I must let go. I must surrender. Without surrender the map is lost, the treasure buried further and harder to find. Or rather, I am blind to it. And so I let go to protect the map, the way home, but not always the way back.”
I didn’t feel the need to share this one, to read it, and so that’s why I did when asked. I had let go, in the writing I had released my attachment to it, to the rest of the day, to criticism or praise.
Allison's Wanderland 