Accidental Soul Work on The Road and At Home
“I never expected that to happen!” Many of us find that events thrown in our path, seemingly accidentally, is where we accomplish much of our deepest internal work.
The challenge is to recognize those occasions as valuable and navigate them to our spiritual benefit.
The memoir/travel, personal growth book, I Never Planned It That Way, shows us how to accomplish that task.
Vignettes of life while traveling abroad in Asia, coupled with tales of life on the home front, and sprinkled with “accidental events,” create a rich mosaic of small adventures and lessons for the soul.
“Never Planned” is available on Amazon.
Read excerpts below:
Rishikesh. Lower Himalayas, India.
Eons ago, an Indian king petitioned the goddess Gunga to descend from the heavens and share her waters with humanity. Impressed by his many prayers and severe penances, she agreed. The force of her descent, however, would have destroyed the land had Lord Shiva not saved the day. He let her waters fall on his head and disperse through his matted hair, easing their way to earth and creating the five sacred rivers of India, of which the Gunga is primary.
The place where the Ganges tumbles out of the Himalayas and onto the populated plains is the area around Haridwar, one of Hinduism’s most holy cities, as well as a few miles upriver at Rishikesh, yoga and guru capital of the world. Many Westerners got their first glimpse of Rishikesh when TV cameras followed the Beatles there in the ‘60’s as they found their guru and pursued Transcendental Meditation.
With few exceptions, all long-haul international flights arrive or depart Indira Gandhi International Airport between midnight and 3am. It has always been thus. Dunno why.
Knowing that making good travel decisions through bleary eyes and a jet-lagged mind at that hour is iffy, I had made arrangements online for my favorite hotel (great location, great rates) ahead of time. I walked briskly and with confidence through Immigration and the Green Channel (Nothing to Declare).
Outside I sailed past the hordes of independent taxi drivers and chose one from the queue of “airport certified” vehicles. “Certified” means that the airport keeps track of them, and you: your name and destination and the taxi number are recorded in the event something untoward should happen.