Last Minute Lessons.....and I DO mean LAST MINUTE

According to my "highly organized, color-coded" travel calendar one-sheet (the one I have been working on for the past three and a half months)  Mom and I are suppose to be meeting in Seattle tomorrow and then jumping on a plane Monday afternoon to head to INDIA.  Oh, how wonderful it all looks...ON PAPER.   With the clock truly clicking down to the last minute, we found out yesterday Mom's travel visa to India has been caught up in some red tape and will NOT arrive in time for us to make our flight.  I suddenly realize - the idea that I can control anything (other than my reaction to things) has no more value than that piece of paper my "high organized, color-coded travel calendar one-sheet" is printed on.
How well did I control my reaction to this news?  Sadly - not well.  Let's see - I cried...then froze....cried again...and stared blankly at my "highly organized color coded.... " well you get the idea. Oh my goodness....how many flights am I going to have to reschedule?  How many hotel reservations? What about my friends who are taking time out of their lives to meet us at a certain place on a certain date?  WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?    Why is this happening to ME?  WHY, WHY, WHY?  I must say....I DO have that victim drama thing down pretty well, hehehehe.
You know what?  Every last one of my Tibetan friends, my Indian friends, my Bhutanese friends told me the exact same thing....."No worries.  We will be waiting for you when you get here."
So now, just 24 hours after I was sitting here in tears - ALL the flights are re-booked....all the hotels are rescheduled.....and all the tears are dried.  AND - if I am SMART I will have learned a lesson from this. The idea that we control anything (again, other than ourselves) is a mere illusion.  At the end of the day, everything will be exactly as it should be.

Something might be missing!!!

Just 28 days now until Mom and I leave for our BIG adventure.  And in 59 days, we will be in Varanasi where this picture was taken almost 120 years ago.
Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.  It is the holiest city for Hindus. For thousands of years, the faithful have brought the bodies of their loved ones here to be cremated, the ashes are then placed into the Ganges River.  It is said that if you die in Varanasi,  you are immediately released from the endless cycle of death and re-birth.  While you are living, you can wash away all of your sins by taking a dip in the holy river.  Yep, it's a pretty special place.
So, it didn't surprise me in the least when my dear friend Dorjee (who will be traveling with me and Mom for the majority of our time in India) suggested I take some of my father's ashes on our trip and sprinkle them in the Ganges.  That's what his family had done after his mother died in Darjeeling.  I thought it was a GREAT idea.
On my recent trip to Kansas, I floated the idea by Mom.  I had already prepared her that we would be seeing bodies in various stages of cremation.
"Hey - ummmmm - you know, Varanasi is considered to be one of the holiest cities in the world."
"Really?"
"Yeah...it is.  In fact, Hindus believe you can wash away all of your sins by taking a dip in the river there."
She turned to look at me.  "With partially cremated bodies floating by?"
"Yeah, I guess we can just kind of look the other way.  Buuuuut I was thinking.....maybe we could take some of Dad's ashes over with us and sprinkle them in the Ganges....that would be pretty incredible."
Her brow furrowed and in a similar tone I used with her when I told her I would NOT be wearing "disposable underwear" (see previous entries, hehehehe) she replied,
"NO WAY!!  When I get to heaven and see your Dad, I want him to have ALL his 'parts'...I don't want him missing an arm because we sprinkled it in the Ganges River."
I burst out laughing.  Bless her heart.