Have you ever dreamed up a crazy idea? Have you ever said that cocka-manie idea out loud? And then do you remember making plans to do that crazy thing, and the planning process in some way transformed the crazy idea into something realistic and possible?

And then have you ever been 24 hours away from getting on a plane to say, India, because your cocka-manie crazy idea is actually happening?

Like really, really, happening. Checked into the flight happening. Dragging your children to India happening.

It is nights like this when I think, “What the heck was I thinking?”

We’ve been traveling for 193 days, which sounds crazy, but has felt shockingly normal. In large part because we have traveled through Europe and the Mediterranean. Very “Western” cultures where the signs might be in a foreign language but are at least written in an alphabet that I can kind of read.

As of tomorrow, for the next 3 months, NOPE. Our World Edventure is about to get exotic and truly foreign.

The regional and national languages will not be the languages that morphed into English. They will be far more ancient. And rather than alphabets, many of them have character-based written language. And pronunciation tones that change the entire meaning of a word.

And, in general, this excites me and makes me curious to discover places like India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Japan.

But right now, tonight, 24 hours from departing on our flight to India, I feel nauseous, restless, anxious, and a bit freaked out.

And overwhelmingly grateful that, when we arrive in Delhi, it is our friends, the Tyagi family, who will be picking us up and orienting us to their beautiful country! We have been dreaming of this time since they lived across the street from us in Irvine!

And that, also, is part of Our World Edventure. Acknowledging fear of the unknown and choosing to go anyway. Choosing that the value of having the foreign and the unknown become a part of our experiences and story is more important than the familiar, safe narrative of what is known.

And so tonight I will sleep fitfully wavering between anxious responsibility dreams and dreams of color-saturated clothing, ancient kingdoms, elephants, tigers, monkeys, slothbears, Bollywood music, spices with names and scents I do not yet know, and the smiles of strangers who will become friends.

 

We will remind ourselves to wear bug spray and sunscreen. To only touch people with our right hands. Not to touch or approach dogs or cats. And most especially our family rule: No Touch Monkey!