There are times in your life when you decide to do something so completely outside your normal life experience that you can’t believe you are actually going to go through with it.  That’s how my upcoming trip to London and Mysore, India is.  I don’t think I will believe that I am taking this trip until I am in the air over the Atlantic.

I bumbled into this potentially life affecting journey by reading a British knitting magazine in July.  Flipping through the pages I spied an ad for a trip to India put on by Knitting for Peace, a wonderful organization that distributes donated handmade knitwear to people in need around the world.  I looked at that ad and immediately KNEW that I was going to go on that trip, without any doubt, the same way I KNEW what I was going to be when I grew up, that I was going to marry the man I married, and that all of my children were girls while I was pregnant, even though the doctors all thought my first child was a boy.

So I began planning my trip, signing up for it online, taking 3 tries to pay for it because my credit cards kept being blocked for fear of fraud, even though I told the credit card company I would be paying an international charge on a certain date.  Normally I would take that as a sign that maybe I shouldn’t go, but not this time. I booked flights on my own, finding out 5 months later that those are the same flights the Knitting For Peace group is meeting  upon arrival and transporting us to for departure.  I almost couldn’t  go because of the expense of the flights, when 2 friends of my daughters happened to mention that it is half the price to fly internationally from Canada compared to the US, and suddenly I could afford the flights.  Then my bad knee decided to become actually unusable, and I had to have it replaced, but there were no surgeries available until such a late date that I would not be able to walk well by the time of the trip, so I would have to cancel my trip.  The next day, someone cancelled their knee replacement surgery, the wonderful nurse called me to see if I wanted surgery in just 2 weeks, and I am healed in plenty of time to travel with no problems.  This trip was definitely meant to happen.

I am not a superstitious person, but I do believe in my gut feelings, and do not really believe in coincidences.  This trip is something I am supposed to experience in my life.  And in one week, I will!