Consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” ~Marcel Proust

Home is where the heart is.

I am what one would call a third culture kid, I have spent my entire life living, studying, and working abroad. When my family was based in Southeast Asia for thirteen years, we were blessed and fortunate to have had the opportunity to connect with our heritage on a regular basis. I have been to Sri Lanka at least a dozen times, The last time was four years ago. This time was different.

Four years ago, I was picking up the pieces left from a toxic relationship, completely broke and jobless, my heart anchored in a deep dark vacuum, my soul was falling apart. This time round, I’m still single, broke, and jobless, only now my heart is free, my eyes open, and soul wide awake. I have never felt so blessed and grateful for life.

Despite the family differences, chaos, and dysfunction surrounding the first divorced Christmas, there was a lot of love. I was reminded daily of Buddha’s eternal rules that the tongue like a sharp knife kills without drawing blood; Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; And that our sorrows and wounds are only healed when we touch them with compassion. Together with the Chinese proverb that a crisis is an opportunity riding a dangerous wind- an opportunity this was.

I was on an island infused with natural and geographical wonders of lush, rolling green landscapes, rare gems, and crystals. Colonized by the Balangoda Man, visited by the Buddha, Alexander the Great, and Marco Polo. A land empowered with energy, rare resources, and histories beginning thirty-four thousand years ago …  This is a place that truly embodies the divine virtues of  beauty, resilience, renewal, and hope.

From my mother’s rooftop overlooking the Indian Ocean facing West, to my father’s landside garden just down the road… To the beaches down South, a Moonstone Mine in the East, and a River Safari North…

I discovered something tucked away in Sri Lanka’s limitless beauty, a little piece of myself.

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
-Buddha 

 

“Wherever my travels may lead, paradise is where I am.”
– Voltaire

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