Shiny place

I was just staring at a shiny marble-like bathroom counter, huge round sink and shiny chrome faucet here in the bathroom at Schiphol Airport. When I turned the water on using the swivel handle -- a nice, long, elegant swivel handle, perfectly clean, a luxurious stream of instant hot water -- I thought to myself, "Things are no longer the same."

Perhaps only the people who have been through something similar can understand, but there appears to me no greater contrast than the dirtiest bathrooms in India and the cleanest ones here in Schiphol.

Things have changed again, and so have I.

Note: I'd be just as happy in either bathroom. This entry is about having the soft gaze that observes change from a point of satisfaction. And a kind of child-like delight and surprise when things become even more beautiful.

And you can find really clean dust free bathrooms in India, but that would not describe were we have been -- roadside tea houses on twelve-hour rides through remote mountain areas for instance.