Collecting My Memories

We spent two weeks of this journey visiting those places I lived as a child. I went to India as a baby of four months and left when I was five years old.

The memories I have come in snapshot format; a specific face, object, place, smell or feeling that is significant to me, but doesn't necessarily connect in a narrative sense. The links and context are all missing. By taking this trip I felt as though I were collecting my lost memories and beginning to string them together.

There were flashes of light as I said "oh that's why I remember....", feelings of wonder as I listened to a new story, moments when I just couldn't get enough of something (usually a taste or smell), and times when I simply felt like crying for the profound connection I felt to a smaller version of myself that is me and yet is lost.

Above all though, I left this part of our time here feeling loved more than anything else - something quite unexpected. Over and over again, I met with people that knew the younger version of me, had thought of me over the last 22 years, and still considered me to be family. I found a large extended family that I had forgotten. It is a wonderful thing to feel loved.

There is far to much to describe, so here are a few pieces of that journey in photos. (Scroll down if you are interested - there are 5 entries on this topic)