In addttion to experiencing the spiritual, transcendent, material, visual, gastronomic and hyper-sensory delights of Italy there was another major benefit to my trip.

I did two things that are sometimes difficult for me to do when not meditating, exercising or listening to music. I forgot and I remembered, for 10 straight days.

I forgot about work

I forgot about China

I forgot about the election, the war, the Bush.

I forgot about the 21st century and its pace, ills, transience, shallowness, pains, fears and blunt, traumatic realities.

I forgot my petty fears, material concerns.

I remembered that we are spiritual, brilliant, curious, talented, scientific, endeavoring and inexplicably paradoxical creatures.

I rememebered that my cultural heritage is so rich, so varied, so deep and so full of magnificence.

I remembered that among the ruins of ancient Rome, flowering of thought and art in Florence, the natural beauty of the Amalfi Coast and the hectic pace of city life in Naples that we are lightening flashes in a gorgeous, violent, slow moving storm.

I remembered that to be human is to embrace the natural, scientific, spiritual and human essences of the regenerative and perfectly balanced universe.

I remembered to keep moving on a journey through space and time to learn as much as possible, think as much as possible and act as much as possible as a return on the gift of life.

Through forgetting so much, I remembered everything.