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In this next part of our honeymoon we venture into India and find some valuable experiences with friends and family. Coming into the Christmas period and being present in India holds some interesting themes. Given I proposed to Monique on xmas eve eleven years ago, and we spent our first honeymoon in India at that time, some serendipitous circumstances have brought us back here to India for our second honeymoon following our recent vows renewal.

It seems as if these circumstances have proven valuable in providing us opportunity to really appreciate life on its own terms, as opposed to how we may like it. I’d propose that India, like no other country, is the perfect environment in which to really have the notion of surrender put to the test. You either get caught in the resistance to the sensory onslaught and demands that are required to fit in, or you allow a certain degree of conscious surrender. Paradoxically as much as there is a process of surrender that proves liberating, a sense of assertion of self is not abandoned but indeed heightened, so as to not get swept away in the flow of activity and to remain resourceful.

India has such cultural diversity and the senses are both challenged and rewarded. There is so much to experience, and its necessary to be present and open to really appreciate what’s on offer. Being here, we have been engaging in some various paced experiences. From being behind the wheel of a car in Delhi streets, having to negotiate the ordered chaos in which traffic operates, to spending some more peaceful times in more remote parts of India; taking quiet walks through small villages with the visual backdrop of tea plantations. A highlight was riding elephants in the world heritage site of Kaziranga, and being on the look out for wild tigers.

Now, coming into the Christmas period, a time which tends to brings families together more than any time in the year the anticipation is building. Given the degree of expectations that can come with this anticipation it can also be a potentially triggering time. With the lesson of surrender and resourcefulness I intend to hold gratitude for all that is offered and extend myself with a generous heart to loved ones, so as to really appreciate and belong to the shared space that we all occupy.
Written by David Kalmar
Psychologist