A Date With Destiny

A teenage girl, slender with black wavy hair, a floral skirt, a peasant blouse standing with her back to me in front of an ornate medieval water fountain and gazing into nothingness was the visual in my dreams for many many years growing up. This water fountain was intricate standing tall in the middle of a garden which was lined with olive trees and lavender bushes. The landscape always reminded me of Tuscany. Tuscany as I had seen in pictures, watched in documentaries and marveled at in the movies. 

And because I saw this exact dream multiple times growing up, my naive heart ran wild with imagination. I imagined that girl was me in  another birth, another lifetime...born and raised in Tuscany amidst rolling hills covered with vineyards and cypress trees. It was like Italy was calling out to me "Come home, you belong here". I could hear it in my heart with no rational explanation or connection to substantiate this very outlandish idea.

But to this day, I feel a strong inexplicable connection to Tuscany. So in a moment of vulnerability, I mentioned this dream and the desire to visit Tuscany to my husband and we talked about the bizarreness of the dream. Then many years passed by and the Italy trip got added to my bucket list along with many others.

Recently when I turned 40, my husband suggested we celebrate the milestone birthday by traveling to Italy and visiting Tuscany since its a dream I've cherished for so long. I was beyond thrilled and we planned the trip in a frenzy. The days to come were a blur as I could not contain my excitement and the anticipation of doing something I have waited to for such a long time. We left Dallas and flew straight to Rome for 4 days. We stayed at a B&B right near the main train terminal of Rome. Everything was accessible by the metro and there was so much to see !

Everything about Rome was “enchanting”. A city that held many untold stories in its fold. An ode to the golden era of civilization. Art and architecture, grandeur beyond imagination and a sense of eternity captured in a time capsule. Rome stood tall, unapologetic and proud - Much like her people! One couldn't help but be in awe of her splendor. Rome truly is, as they say, a city of echoes, a city of illusions and a city of yearning.

Everywhere we looked there was history, beauty and splendor.  We visited the Il Vittoriano monument, the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, Vatican city, St.Perter's Basilica, the Sistine chapel, the Colosseum and the Roman forum. I felt little, almost non-existent in a world that was grand, larger than life and enigmatic to this day. I had barely gotten over the rush of Rome before it was time to take the train to Tuscany. I waited with bated breath for the train to arrive. The ride to Tuscany was surreal. It was just like I had imagined. Virgin green pastures, cattle flocking the farmlands, vineyards for as far as the eye could see and ethereal beauty everywhere.

We went straight to the historic town of Florence and stayed there for the next 3 days. Florence in Tuscany is a clandestine love affair. Rolling hills covered with vineyards and cypress trees, cobbled streets lined with tiny cafes, 5 villages suspended between land and the sea, the rustic charm of the medieval era; true to its name, Florence was a city in full bloom (like flowers). The street music, the cappuccino, the exotic wines, the mouth watering wood fired pizzas... it was a culinary paradise in addition to being a Mecca for the romantics.

We visited the Duomo, the Cinque Terre (villages by the sea) and Chianti wine country. It was in Chianti that I looked for the garden and the fountain in my dreams. Needless to say, I never did find it but this I can tell....walking down the small quaint villages in Chianti and the smell of olive trees, the truffle oil and the barrels of wine, I felt right at HOME. Like I had been there before or at least like I would fit right in. If only I had the millions of $$ it takes to own a small winery and a Tuscan villa in Chianti, I would never have come back. 

I left Florence weak kneed and starry eyed like a teenage girl struck by love at first sight❤️😍A tiny part of my heart got left behind on a hill in Tuscany 💕 like they say in Italian “Mi Amore Tuscany”.


The trip to Italy was everything it promised to be...a sublime date with Destiny !!

Utah - Where time stands still...

Salt lake city thru my lens

I haven't done a travelogue ever but the beauty, tranquility and breathtaking serenity of Utah has me compelled to write. I arrived here in Salt lake city yesterday for a conference and have been smitten ever since I stepped out of the airport and into my Uber.

Anyone that knows me, knows that my wanderlust is insatiable. I love travel, period. I love traveling with my family and God has been kind in finding me a partner who loves to travel as much as I do. We do some great family vacations and it was the only way I knew how to have a good time traveling...that is, until recently.

I have now been traveling for work, business trips about 2-3 times a year for the last few years and have learnt to enjoy the solitude, the freedom and the quiet reflection that flying solo provides. There is something to be said about being all on your own in a place where nobody knows you or even cares that you exist. It's daunting, yet liberating. I can be whoever I want to be... sometimes I can decide to be or not to be.

Anyways, long story short, ...I think I am falling in love with this place. Salt lake city is nestled in the foothills of the Rockies and is a valley filled with flowers and sprawling landscapes. Shortly after I arrived, I checked into my hotel room on the 8th floor, changed into my robe and opened the drapes of my window. The view was stunning with sky scrapers, museums and restaurants below me but behind them all stood the magnificent snow capped mountains. Tall and unyielding. The city was merely a shadow and yet it let the city thrive in its benevolence. It's like time had come to a stand still. Beauty as far as the eye could see.

Unwilling to stay confined to the hotel room, I decided to venture out and stroll around downtown and hopefully get a closer look at the mountains and the quaint little homes lining the valley. I walked for about 3-5 miles and passed many elegant churches, whimsical houses built with stellar imagination, flower lined sidewalks, tree filled pathways and open green lands. The best part ? the people. No one was in a hurry to be anywhere. Every one took their time to cross the road, wait for the traffic light, pick up someone else's trash, give directions to folks like me who needed it...just nice, kind people. Dallas cannot boast of being fast paced compared to New York or Chicago or even Boston but Dallas still is in a rush. Its booming, its growing and it has a long way to go...Compared to that, Salt lake city seemed to have blossomed, settled and found its peace.

I am yet to take a drive to the "Great Salt lake" and dip my toe in the remnants of the great ice age. But I am already blown away by the quiet stillness that surrounds me. Even with what little I've seen, I know I will take a piece of Utah with me wherever I go.

P.S: Candidly, the pic collage on this post that my cell phone camera captured is a futile attempt...it doesn't do any justice to the charm of this city.

Life is soup and I'm a damn fork

Life has a funny way of showing you who's boss. You reach a certain point in life and you look back at the time that has passed and assess who you have become. As for me, I am far from being the person I imagined I would be.

When I was young, I had imagined that by the time I was 40, I would be a force to reckon with. I didn't know what my profession would be but I imagined I would be at its peak. I imagined I'd be a kick ass wife, a formidable mom and a social butterfly with a glamourous life. I had imagined that I would be successful and well off.

I am months away from being 40 and it dawns on me that I don’t have much to show for it. I have a profession but calling it super successful would be optimistic. I am an okay wife and an average mom. I have no semblance of a social life and I am financially comfortable. Funny how all the superlatives quickly turned into just positives.

I was misled by a handful of people who doted on me growing up, that I was special and that I was somehow destined for greatness. And God knows I strived for it. It wasn't for lack of trying. I soon realized that the Universe has a way of humbling you. Balancing ambition with reality and showing you that sometimes no matter how hard you try, how persistently you nail and claw your way thru life...it just isn't meant to be.

While no one has ever accused me of being someone that easily gives up, in fact quite the contrary...I do feel like I am on the verge of it. I have seen people much less deserving than I, people who have worked far less harder than I have, people who never went above and beyond for a moment in their life, walk away with everything-  professionally and personally. I have come to realize that to expect life to be fair would be the biggest folly of all.  And what you end up with has little to do with what you put into it.

In this mad race to be someone, get somewhere, I stopped being the one thing I was good at. A daughter. Now I am a 7pm phone call that checks on my parents from afar, gives them free advice and gets frustrated when they don't take it or follow thru. And the irony is they put up with it unflinchingly and with no disdain.

I wonder where it all went awry. I wonder what I could have done differently. Probably a zillion things, probably nothing. I now feel like I float thru life aimlessly, with no passion, with some regret, some disappointment and in the vague hope that the universe would somehow make it up to me. That one day, things would turn around and amends would be made. Because thru all this chaos and uncertainty if there is one thing I know, it is this....I deserve better !!