It has been two weeks and four days since I returned back to Jaipur. My two almost empty suitcases tease me that they will not leave me alone and are angry that I have avoided and ignored them. Suitcases are put to their best use when going from one place to another; when you’ve actually arrived, who wants to continue the relationship? I’m here, let my life begin again! Oh wait, I have to re-incorporate my travelwares into my homewares…
Why is everyone so in shock when I tell them that I still haven’t fully unpacked? What’s the rush, anyway? Yes, it does bother me slightly to look at that messy corner and the taunting baggage. But it also kindly speaks to me of my journey, allows me reminiscences.
Incidentally, I have the same problem with packing. Not for small journeys, those are easy. But the long haul ones that force me to face leaving familiar territory for extended periods, prod me to plan ahead–well I’m just not very good at those. I’d like to think of myself as well-organised, but unwittingly so. It takes so much brain power to organise, strategise, think logically!
And yet, a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and I’m so grateful to have had such opportunities to develop my own. I’m also extremely lucky that at least I have suitcases to pack and unpack, and places to go and people to see. My split living has been at once the source of my greatest growth and biggest challenge. Cultural confusion forces you to stare not at the surface layers of difference, but to sink deeper into the ties that bind us as humans. I continue to question my own assumptions, and to find few absolute answers. (Except when I trick myself into believing that I’m right, which is always! lol).
At least I am not this bad:
Thanks for this photo, great to be able to see how others operate!
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