Current Events

“So many gods but no love for the people…… So many prayers yeah, but where’s the prayer for peace?”

Trevor Hall making me feel all flower power-y and peace loving every time I listen to him.. but also, so relevant.

It seems like everyday there’s a new tragedy being reported in the news. There’s always something brought up in daily conversation.

Did you hear what happened yesterday?

I find myself saying “which one? The one in _____ or the one in ________?”

It’s so casual. It’s small talk now.

I have no clever political standpoint or anything to say about democrats or republicans or ISIS or gun control. I have no hashtags or points to prove.

All I want to put out there is a true prayer for peace. My prayer isn’t to anything in particular, just to the world. I pray that humanity gains its sense of humanity again. I pray that we lose our overall sense of desensitized complacency and that we learn to love again.

Put your energy into something useful today. Listen to this song. Don’t watch the news for a bit. Don’t hate. The world’s got enough of that right now.

So, love.

Way Up on the Mountain

We climbed this mountain in our first month in India. We stared longingly at it for weeks then decided to tackle it one morning. I think it was the first time I felt connected to this place. From three months here I can tell you one thing: India does not disappoint. It captivates, infuriates, and occasionally contaminates – but it does not disappoint.

Enlightenment

This is the first year in my life that I’ve been so far from home on Thanksgiving. The past few Thanksgivings have been a little different, but this year was especially abnormal. I’m in India. 8,000 miles away.

As promised, I tried my best to make Thanksgiving food for my host mom. My friend Mimi and I live in families that don’t eat garlic, onions, mushrooms, or eggs – all things that are usually crucial to anything that I cook. I mean c’mon, I’m Italian – it’s a sin to cook without garlic and onions. The spices are different here, the vegetables are different here, and the ovens….are toasters. Despite the struggles of cooking in a very different kitchen, we tried our bests and we had a good laugh about the pitiful results. Bland mashed potatoes, dry pasta, burnt stuffing, and black apple crumble it is.

We sat down and served our families together. Mimi said “Feel free to add any spices you want” and we giggled as our host moms stood up to gather up the spices they could to attempt to fix our tasteless dishes.

We shared with our families the tradition of saying what you’re grateful for over dinner.

Afterwards, we lit the final diya (candle) for this months Indian festival of lights.

It was a simple but meaningful Thanksgiving. It didn’t have to be anything more and it wasn’t and it was beautiful. Every year, Thanksgiving is a day when I think about my life a lot. I think of everything that I have to be grateful for. Being here has made me realize a lot that is hard to explain.

I would not have done anything differently. All of the moments in my life, everyone I have met, every trip I have ever taken, every success I have ever enjoyed, every blunder I have ever made, every loss I have endured has been just right. I am not saying that they were all good or that they happened for a reason… but they have been right. They have been okay. As far as revelations go, it’s pretty lame, I know. Okay is not bliss or even happiness. Okay is not the basis for a new religion or self help movement. Okay won’t get me on Oprah, but okay is a start and for that I am grateful. Can I thank India for this breakthrough? It’s hard to say. It is a strange place, peculiar in ways large and small. You lose your bearings here, and when that happens a crack forms in your armor. A crack large enough, if you’re lucky, to let in a few shafts of light.

Death to the Nine-to-Five

A concept I’ve been thinking about lately..

“You want others to create the society and you can then slip into it.. This is what we are all waiting for. A few struggle, work, create, and refuse to enter into this rat race. and the others say, “Yes, after you have constructed what you think is right society, then we’ll all join you.”

But we don’t do it together.

That’s the whole problem. Right?”

Bombay Bicycle Club

One of my rickshaw anthems that I blast nonstop (thanks Tati for introducing me)

Hawaiian Roller Coaster

Better late than never, here’s some little snippets of my adventures in Hawaii this summer! More to come, xo, Little Bird

Bat Shit Crazy

A few weeks ago, we had an incident with a bat in our house. A little background info – my host mom is not so fond of animals (of any kind), in fact, she’s kind of afraid of them. It’s not abnormal for a bird or two to fly into the apartment searching for food, but it’s always pretty easy to shoo them outside through the windows. But, not always.
I came home one night after work and began having my normal evening conversation with my host mom. Casual right? Then something flew past my head.”Oh, it’s a bird!”, I thought.
My host mom screamed and crouched behind the kitchen counter and Continue reading “Bat Shit Crazy” →

A Peace of the Road

Adventures of Little Bird