Hello from India!

Sitting here and sweating (glowing) in an open-air internet cafe in Goa, India. Wondering, where do I begin? How did I end up in India? What am I doing here?

Feels like I packed up and left quickly after my final (for now) breast cancer reconstruction surgery. It actually wasn't so quick even though it's a blur now. It took the help and assistance of many wonderful, thoughtful girlfriends to move me out of my home and onto a plane for India with my 3 daughters.

That's where I'll begin.... by thanking you - my amazing Braveheart Sisters for your heartfelt notes and concern when I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Thank you Ellie, for your thoughts and support and thanks to everyone who joined in and added to her message.

I couldn't find the extra "uummph" to get online and reply, but your messages and prayers warmed my heart and surely helped me face my challenges with strength and move quickly along the road of recovery.

The power of intention is amazing and that with some gratitude and faith is actually how I believe I got here. I've always wanted to travel and India was on the top of my list. It was on my vision board and when I read "Eat, Pray, Love", after my divorce, I wanted to visit India even more! The funny thing is that until a breast cancer diagnosis stopped me in my tracks, my dream of travel was just that..."a dream". A dream that I believed would happen, but it would be sometime in the future after I got everything done and I saved enough money and....

I've often heard that a cancer diagnosis or serious health challenge can completely alter your outlook on life and shift your perspective of what's important NOW. For me, this must also be true. No matter what life has dealt me, I've always felt blessed to have a gift for easily finding the "good" or the lesson in situations and I have been able to accept, learn and grow with enthusiasm and gratitude. However recently, everything that I had been working so "hard" for came into question. My priority since becoming a mom had always been to provide a wonderful, stable, happy, loving home for my three daughters. But it suddenly occurred to me that exhausting myself in order to pay the mortgage for our dream home didn't feel so stable anymore.

My daughters had been through one challenge after another in the past few years also and together we've copped an attitude! An attitude to make a big change and experience a new way of life - to see the world, take in a big breath of fresh air and broaden our horizons!

Yes, my priorities have surely changed for now - With the help of friends, we moved completely out of our precious dream home, put our belongings in storage and rented for one year! What we had known as our foundation, our stability, our "home base", is no longer true. We are here in India for 3 months... home schooling and learning our way in a new world.

Namaste,

Patti
"Success with Balance" ?
From "Raju's CyberspaceCafe"
Anjuna, Goa, India