Ganges Sentinel
A once grand palace stands as a nighttime sentinel, Â watching over the sacred River Ganges as it flows silently by Benares, more popularly known as Varanasi, on its way to…
Postcard from Kottayam, India
We had an opportunity to visit the Thirunakkata Utsavam Festival and witness this passionate and lively celebration. Â Twenty two elephants paraded through the Thiirunakkara Mahadevar temple grounds unadorned. Then each…
Calcutta Rickshaw Wallah
One of Calcutta's ubiquitous rickshaw wallahs, or puller, rests for a few moments in the city's stifling heat while a devotee puts the finishing touches on his family's pandal, in…
Sheldon Church – Mystery and History of Backroads
Our road trips take longer than they used to. Whenever possible we travel the back roads, the blue highways, the roads less traveled. While America’s interstate highways are efficient, they are also predictable and boring. But there is a lot of mystery and history to be discovered on the roads less traveled. Recently, while exploring the swamps and marshes of coastal South Carolina, we learned of the ruins of a pre-Revolutionary War church. After more research and reading we found out there are actually five such church ruins tucked away in these backwaters and all but forgotten.
Without Darkness There is No Light
Late afternoon light streams through the stained glass window of a tiny chapel on the outskirts of Port au Prince, Haiti. Perhaps a metaphor of Haiti herself. In order for…
The Potters of Kumartuli – Where the Durga Puja Story Begins
Durga Puja, the annual worship of the Hindu Goddess Durga, is about to begin in Calcutta, India. The festival lasts the better part of a week and is embraced by…
You Got the Blues?
I sang in church growing up. Memphis is the blues capital of the world, we like to say. ___Justin Timberlake I been in the blues all my life. I'm still…
Peaceful
There is a man Sitting for meditation In a temple corner On a spring night. Matsuo Basho A young man seeking solace, alone with his thoughts, in the peaceful surroundings…
Widow of Vrindavan
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. Â Mother Teresa According to Hindu tradition widows may not remarry. Instead they are to spend their remaining lives…
The Orange Robes of Laos
There are some thirty-four active Buddhist Temples or Wats and an estimated 2,000 monks in and around Luang Prabang, Laos. Boys as young a ten years old can enter a…