The meaning of life.

Before going on this trip I could not have fathomed what the next four months would bring.

How extremely blessed I am to have the opportunities I've had. To see an array of beautiful things, to meet countless wonderful people!

I've learned that in the end we all want love. We all want happiness. Where ever we find that love doesn't matter. For me it's in travel, through meeting new people and new cultures, through never letting my feet touch the ground. But this isn't for everybody. You don't have to travel a thousand miles across the globe to be of service. If I travel, it's mostly for selfish reasons. Yes I try to give back when I'm traveling, I volunteer, I teach, I give children love. But I could do this at home. There are countless children in American who need love too. 

I'm not traveling to save anyone, except maybe myself. 

Sometimes the greatest service comes from being at home. For instance, being a mother: giving the gift of life and even greater LOVE, to another human being. I sincerely believe there is no greater purpose, than raising a beautiful child in this world. I admire all of my friends who have chosen this path.

I love to travel. I've met some of the most beautiful inspiring individuals, and I aspire to meet more. By seeing how other cultures function, how they love, how they communicate, how they view the world, how they raise their children. That's how I learn. But it's not the only way.

These last few months have taught me more than I could have ever imagined and I am so grateful for that. 

Nonetheless, my travels are a purely selfish thing and I'm okay with it. I've learned in the last year, as Phoebe too reluctantly learned on Friends, there is no such things as a truly unselfish act. In the end everything comes back to us, even if it's our own happiness gained from giving to others.

With that being said, giving and serving others, spreading compassion and kindness is the most important thing and the sole purpose of our lives. And it can be done anywhere, one doesn't have to travel across the globe to do it. Most times it's the smallest actions that make the biggest impact. 

So whether you're a mother, a teacher, a garbage woman, a banker, a world traveler, the president of the United States, know that if you're making a positive difference in the life of even one sentient being, your life is of most significance.  And know that you can do it right from the comfort of your home.

Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.  - The Dalai Lama

Equanimity: An attitude that involves having equal respect and concern for every being regardless of where they stand in relation to us.

sunset at Kopan<3

Sometimes you can hear things a thousand times. But never truly hear them.

Perhaps it's something you've been told countless times, but it's never really registered. And then one day, some way, you hear it. It makes sense. You see it and it's so obvious.

What's changed? It's the same information. Is it the person telling you it? Was there some shift in your mind? How is it that it's suddenly so clear?

I'm not sure if I can answer this. I just know that it's true.

During these last four months traveling, I can definitely say I've learned things-- entirely new things.  A new concept, a new idea, a new way of seeing things, seeing life. Things I never would have thought of. Ideas that blew my mind. People with lifestyles I never could have fathomed. 

This I definitely encountered.

But more often that not, I encountered things that I already knew... or at least thought I knew. Things that made sense, facts if you may. Ideas I clung to that just had to be true.

And then realizing they're NOT that way. . unlearning them. This has been the most powerful thing.

Realizing that sometimes you think you know things, but really you know nothing. 

Seeing things in a different way, this is the magic of traveling. Of meeting new people, new cultures, new ways of living, of seeing our world.

Realizing unity and that each and every individual you ever encounter is exactly the same in that they want happiness and they don't want suffering. And yes we may all attempt to find this happiness in various different ways, but when it comes down to it. We all want love, we want success. We all want to be happy. 

And from the beginning we know how to accomplish this. It's so simple. It's always there.

Yet we make it so complicated. We fill our minds with endless voices that drown out the one voice we need to hear. The voice of truth.

But then one day you wake up. You truly listen. You're able to hear that truth. That advice you've been told endless times that never truly registered. That love the world has been trying to give you but you just couldn't see.

Realizing the love is there, you can now accept it. 

It's yours. It's ours.

It's equanimity.