The best part of being a Tourist

It is so liberating being a tourist...I do not have to worry about their taxes, the broken plumbing, the right candidate in the political scene, the daily routine, the grumpy neighbour, the aging car, the stinking metro stations, the graffiti on the city walls, the littering on the streets, the dog-owners who do not clean up after their dogs,  or anything.
Finally, I can be just an outsider, put my feet up, look at the gorgeous sky above, and just live this very moment...the past here was never mine, and in all probability, neither is future...It is just this very present that belongs to me here....ahhhh! and that too, for a finite period of time....
It is so liberating being a tourist;  even if that makes me a walking talking expense account!

Stumped!!!

This was not meant to be. Our visa had been rejected once, tickets canceled,  reapplied through another embassy, awaited, and finally, those tickets also canceled. We had started making alternative travel plans, assuming there must be something good in all this quashing of plans, waiting for that unknown greater good to appear before us and satisfy our curiosity....
And then it happened! Two days after our tickets had been cancelled (for the second time) and shopping plans shelved, we got the call from the embassy to come and collect our passports. As we did so, we contemplated  rushing to the airport directly to catch the flight due to depart in two hours; carrying nothing but money and passports- the two most important travel essentials. The project was to start the next morning, we had already requested for a refund on our apartment booking, there was no flight available at such a short notice for all of us.....
Finally, we decided not to panic....at worst, we could split our flights and meet in paris.

Well, I think that was when God finally softened :). Our good friend MB was able to secure us tickets for the night flight that night on the airline he works with.  The landlady emailed us to share the loss since she had been unable to find another tenant. We had no time to shop now but we did have time to pack essentials. Everything seemed to be finally falling into place...
So, that is when I started marveling at the mysterious ways of God...for days, and weeks and months, everything was going wrong in spite of ample planning and good intentions. It seemed He was signaling us...."cancel this trip....cancel this trip"; and just when everyone accepted defeat, accepted that  there must be some other plan for us, HE changed His mind.
 Was He just playing hide and seek with us? Or was He testing our determination? Or was HE proving that man proposes, God disposes?
All I know is, it helped to accept it all as fate and wait for His bigger and better plan to be revealed; to let go; and finally, to allow myself to be surprised by His naughty and yet benevolent ways...