jdanatrent.com

Dear Friends:

Thank you for taking time to read Trouver Ma Voie. For simplicity's sake, I'm now blogging on jdanatrent.com, where you can find both my blog and freelance Web site. Please join me there--I look forward to continuing the journey with you.

Finding my way,

J. Dana Trent

10 Reasons to Visit Vrindavan, India

Though I haven't visited Vrindavan yet, I can think of 10 glorious reasons to go, in random order:

1. It's a different world (so I've been told).
2. Wonderful, vegetarian food.
3. Marketplaces filled with goodies that make women giddy (e.g., colorful clothes, jewelry, handmade goods).
4. Nearly two weeks of living in an ashram (temple/church) with daily routines of prayer, worship, and meditation.
5. Riding/surviving rickshaw rides.
6. Temples on every corner (there's nearly 5,000 in Vrindavan) much like the shopping on every corner we have in America.
7. Visiting the nonprofit organization Food for Life and seeing a completely different side of life (extreme poverty, lack of opportunities and education).
8. The monkeys. Need I say more?
9. No cell phone and no computer (save for the brief visits to the Internet cafe).
10. The experience of a lifetime!


Most of all, Vrindavan is a spiritual oasis poised for sharing its warmth with weary pilgrims:

• "O friend, please control your mind and senses and go and live in Vrndavana, which is a mine of nectar, and which is so glorious that even millions of books by the greatest poets and philosophers cannot describe a single ray of light from the host of the jewels of its virtues."
• "May faultless Vrndavana, which transforms sinners into saints, protect me ... and dry up the multitude of my terrible sins.

from Sri Vrndavana Mahimamrta, Sataka One, 35 and 39 

Traveling to India may not be feasible for everyone, so where do you go when you need (mental, physical, and/or spiritual) renewal?

Photo Credit: Kusuma Sarovar Ghat 

Articles to Inspire

Lately I've been submerging myself in motivational articles and blogs.

I'm sufficiently addicted--thanks to my husband--who sends me a few links each day.

Here are some to share, all in one place, so you don't have to go Googling about to begin your own motivational journey. Simply start here:

Leo Babauta's Zen Habits
Deepak Chopra via the Huffington Post
Copyblogger
Dr. Edward Hallowell via the Harvard Business Review Blog
Lifehack
Write to Done

What are some of your favorites that I've missed? Please share--and spread inspiration!

Nota bene: This list is certainly not exhaustive--and of course I've included a few writing blogs for good measure (e.g., Copyblogger and Write to Done). I am, after all, a so-called writer.

Photo Credit: "Dreaming of the Perfect Sunrise," by Gareth Weeks

God's Acre Posts

Dearest Reader:

I've imported posts from God's Acre, the blog I began in 2008, to Trouver Ma Voie. You can find them in the blog archive listed under posts from 2008 and 2009. Thanks for sharing the journey with me. Enjoy!

Yours,
J. Dana Trent

TV-Free Life

Welcome to Thanksgiving.

This is the day when Americans watch endless football, eat far too much, and (if you're extremely blessed they way Fred and I are) enjoy the company of precious family and friends.

I spent my first Thanksgiving holiday as a married person with my in-laws, whom I love dearly. Fred and I traveled to their home early this morning to begin our day of cooking, playing, reading, lazing, talking, piddling, and ... TV watching.

Did I mention TV watching? Because I've been living a TV-free life for just over four months, the mere presence of a muted TV bewitches me. I was enthralled  my in-laws' TV all day. Really. All day.

After many weeks of life without the box of constant news, commercials, chatter, and over-stimulation, here are a few tidbits I observed from today's variety:

1. "Miracle on 34th Street." Classic. Elegant.
2. Football--actually enjoyable. Colorful, Even entertaining. Good commercials. It helps that I heard a useful radio round-up on the games during the car ride to my in-laws, so I sort of felt as if I knew what I was getting into.
3. National Dog Show. So enjoyable to watch with my mother-in-law and her three precious pups.
4. The movie "Break Up," a funny, yet depressing relationship story with (life imitates art couple) Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.
5. NBC's People of the Year 2010. Kim Kardashian endlessly doting on her "brand" to Matt Lauer was over the top. The lovely Susan Boyle Memoriam segment made up for it.
6. The Travel Channel's latest "Man v. Food" challenge: six pounds of seven different meats and a pound-and-a-half of fries at a crowded joint in Kansas City. While entertaining, I couldn't help but think of WUNC's recent story on North Carolina's food banks and the number of food insecure households in America.

It was a lovely day, but it's time to go back to my TV-free life.

Oh, and we also don't own a microwave. But, that's for another post

What do you love about TV? What frustrates you about TV?

Top Ten Reasons You Should Stop Watching TV

India

How does one prepare for a spiritual pilgrimage to India?

I’m supposed to be writing about India—and all I can think of is how I don’t know what to write and therefore I couldn't possibly write one blog post, let alone an entire book about my journey to India. I feel stuck.

How does one prepare for the supposed life-changing experience that is India? Better yet, how does one put it to words? And how does an ordained Southern Baptist minister find herself married to a Hindu from rural North Carolina and traveling the 7,732 miles to a strange world for her honeymoon?

If you’re me, you start with a list (or two of them):

Fears:

• The dreaded plane ride (Ugh)
• Getting sick (Dehli Belly and the like)
• The smells (I’ve been warned)

Can’t-Waits:

• Quiet time for prayer, meditation, and writing
• Bright colors
• Children, monkeys, and cows
• Deities and a religious world I’ve hardly experienced

 So, here I am, nearly one month away from seeing life so differently and praying for the grace to write about it.

Perfectionism

Ever wonder why I don't post as frequently as I should? Check out all the Trouver Ma Voie posts still in draft form.

That's right. Perfectionism is a writer's (or blogger's) worst enemy.

Screen shot from the Trouver Ma Voie posting tab.