Life After Oz

[Fireside_Hindu]

Ever since returning from my two month trip to India last year, I have felt the ever growing need to return. I've started to feel a bit like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I started to think, how did she live the rest of her life, content in Kansas, knowing that a place like Oz existed and that so many other amazing worlds possibly existed too? How did she go back to black and white after a life in full color?

I feel ridiculous that I can't just be content and grateful for having had the experience - an experience that most of the world doesn't get to have at all. Why this constant itch to go back? And it's not just for a visit either. I've been wrestling with thoughts of trying to find a way to stay in India for semi-long term (at least a year). For many reasons that's not possible right now, and may never be possible. So how do I scratch that itch? How do I know if this feeling will pass or if I'll constantly be wishing I could "go back to Oz" only to feel unfulfilled when I can't? For those with serious wanderlust like me, how to do satisfy that urge when you aren't in a position to actually travel?

 

[Rival]

The good news is that Dorothy eventually moved permanently to Oz with her family.

 

[Valjean]

How ya gonna keep 'em
down on the farm
after they've seen Paree?

 

[Vinayaka]

Yes, it's a dilemma, FS. Age and the accompanying difficulty in traveling has helped us quite a bit. The Self is within, not in some place, but I did at one time feel the itch, yes. But we've been incredibly lucky too, having been to the main places we wanted to go to. I have an old acquaintance who has been to some 167 countries and counting. He's off to Columbia just now. He'll be back, stay home for while, and then be off on another exotic adventure. His itch never gets satisfied, it seems.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

The good news is that Dorothy eventually moved permanently to Oz with her family.

See, I've only ever seen the movies so I was wandering how it ended for her in the books

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

Yes, it's a dilemma, FS. Age and the accompanying difficulty in traveling has helped us quite a bit. The Self is within, not in some place, but I did at one time feel the itch, yes. But we've been incredibly lucky too, having been to the main places we wanted to go to. I have an old acquaintance who has been to some 167 countries and counting. He's off to Columbia just now. He'll be back, stay home for while, and then be off on another exotic adventure. His itch never gets satisfied, it seems.

My trouble is not knowing whether the itch is just lack of contentment with where I am now or if God is trying to tell me something.

Today I sat for a very long time pondering the issue. I need to calm all the internal noise before I can hear anything that might be being said.

 

[Vinayaka]

My trouble is not knowing whether the itch is just lack of contentment with where I am now or if God is trying to tell me something.

Today I sat for a very long time pondering the issue. I need to calm all the internal noise before I can hear anything that might be being said.

Maybe it's seasonal. I get springtime itchy feet. I think I told you this before, but here it goes again. My Tamil buddy didn't know the idiom 'itchy feet' and he wanted to buy me some salve to put on my feet. A good laugh all around when I explained it.

My blog about our trip to Mauritius was titled 'Mauritius Beckoned' . So I do sense the 'calling you'. We stayed for 3 months, and now we're over it. Maybe a longer period of time would make you get over it.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

Maybe it's seasonal. I get springtime itchy feet. I think I told you this before, but here it goes again. My Tamil buddy didn't know the idiom 'itchy feet' and he wanted to buy me some salve to put on my feet. A good laugh all around when I explained it.

My blog about our trip to Mauritius was titled 'Mauritius Beckoned' . So I do sense the 'calling you'. We stayed for 3 months, and now we're over it. Maybe a longer period of time would make you get over it.

haha! If you've told that story I'd forgotten it. That's a great story. I love it when things get lost in translation.

Right now, I am trying to work out with my husband how we can try and live abroad in India for a year. I don't want to pull hi away from a job he loves, and certainly the logistics of getting back into his work make it a difficult choice, but he thinks there might be a way to work out a transfer after another year or so here in the states. It's a big maybe. And who knows. Maybe the fever will have cooled by then.