You know that sometimes my only clues to an ongoing holiday are the icons that dance around the Yahoo and Google front pages? The funny thing about holidays, which I think is only taken into account in their absence, is that they act as anchors and effectively pin down a year into some semblance of cyclical time that would otherwise wander un-tethered.

So here I am, in a Hindu nation, where the concept of reincarnation is a matter of fact, and a single birth of a human god, fiction. Ah. These twists in the perspectives plot bring me much joy. As they throw black and white, wrong and right, out the door, and humble my definition of “reality” to a tiny place in my brain, essentially linked between the hands of individual experience and personality. I cannot possibly define what’s real and what’s not. And I am happy to be relieved of this self-imposed and unnecessary duty.

On Christmas Eve, I wandered down the streets of Pondicherry. As I watched this cherished elephant outside a Hindu temple distribute blessings to an adoring crowd, I wondered if, without seeing, I could ever have preconceived of it. I decided not. And took a quick video clip to share with any of those wondering, how some of the rest of the world is experiencing your same eve…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOFmCQIwFco]

I think the soundtrack is my favorite part of this clip. Because it resonates surprisingly in tune to what I heard going on in the background when I called home this morning and the phone was passed around a boisterous room of near and extended family.

So I suppose I can always draw a line here, and connect one place to another with the shared term, “spirited community.” And by this definition of “holiday,” I’d like to put my wish for you on record: I hope that to-day, among many, you feel yourself encircled by the presence of spirited company and wish that your holiday cheer extends beyond this date to encompass all seasons and in recognition of an even greater shared sibling-hood with those that experience and express your same joy, through different means, on all sides of the world.

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*sol bows her “namaste” and gratitude to World Nomads Travel Insurance, ThinkHost and Merc for their ever-supporting roles in the realization of her dream.