The Taj Mahal – Why Travel Heals
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Terri Wingham is the founder and CEO of A Fresh Chapter, a cancer survivor, and someone who believes that we are not defined by the most difficult aspects of our story. |
Her eyes glossy with tears, she bit her lip and stared at the horizon.
“I can’t believe I’m here.” She spoke so softy I couldn’t tell if she was talking to me or simply speaking out loud to ground herself in the moment.
“I can’t believe I’m here.” She said it again as she looked over at me. “Three months ago, I couldn’t get off the couch and now I’m here. I’m in India and I just saw the Taj Mahal.” The tears dripped like a leaky faucet from her chin to her shirt. She swiped under her eyes and laughed.
“I don’t know why I’m crying,” she said.
I put my arm around her. I knew why she was crying. I had felt the same mix of sadness, disbelief, joy and awe when I stood under the spray of Victoria Falls in 2011.
This is the moment, I thought.
The moment when one sees more than the loss of her hair, her innocence, and herself. The moment she sees past cancer. The moment darkness lifts and she sees – if for only a fraction of a second – her life through fresh eyes.
As I stood in that moment with her, I exhaled in gratitude. For her, for me and for all of us who have the courage to take the next step.
Starting a fresh chapter doesn’t mean erasing the difficult parts of our stories. It doesn’t mean never facing adversity again. It simply means making a choice to live from a place of possibility even when we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. It means making peace with the struggle and trusting that even when life feels more dark than light, there will one day be a clearing.
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Do you dream of meaningful travel as a way to Start Fresh? If you are a cancer patient or survivor, click here to subscribe to the Fresh Chapter Alliance Foundation and you’ll be the first to know about upcoming adventures. You can also join our community on Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to hear from you in the comments below and we look forward to the adventures ahead.
Thank you to every single person who has become part of this tribe and has made it possible for life-changing moments to happen. It is because of every single donor, friend, and supportor that the opportunity has arisen for our participants to find community and healing.
Comments (13)
Terri,
Such a moving post. It is an amazing thing when you see your life as inspiring again and see the people around and realise that everyone is doing their best while fighting their own battle, not better not worse but different.
Travel has enable me to see and embrace a different life, a life I love and perhaps even living whole for the first time.
Thanks for sharing your journey, I hope it inspires women to move forward in life and continue a different journey.
Love Gai
Love this post! Makes me feel honored to know you! So happy for you and the New Delhi dozen:)
Thank you Suzanne. You were definitely with us in spirit!!!
Que de chemin parcouru on this long and winding road. Bravo. Love you beaucoup!
I am so happy for you, the group with you in India and your foundation. Thank you for sharing the update. ~Catherine
Thank you so much Catherine! Wish you could have been here.
How beautiful to be in the moment with the New Delhi Dozen in front of the Taj Mahal. Your journey is magical and I love your photos I love the way your adventure over the past few months goes from “this is not my life” to tears of joy in the most spectacular surroundings. Keep enjoying and photographing these precious moments and thanks for sharing them. I am so proud to know you!
Susan – Thank you so much. It was such a wonderful moment at the Taj and I’m so blessed to continue to find ways to live this dream. I look forward to sharing more photos and stories soon. Take good care of you! Terri
An absolutely inspiring and beautiful piece T! I am very proud of you. Love, Japes
Thank you so much my sweet friend. I am so grateful to have people like on the journey with me. Big love! Terri. xo
[…] completed their placement on her Fresh Chapters Alliance program, and it’s an opportunity for Terri to reflect on the healing power of […]
I too, have tears in my eyes as my daughter shares her feeling with you…because I have traveled this journey with her to reach that moment of disbelief, of accomplishment, of connecting. Thank you for the amazing work you do. Thank you for giving my daughter a restoration of soul and spirit.
Sylvia,
Thank you so much for your comment. It means the world to me. Terri xo