For weeks, I traveled throughout India, embracing simple, everyday events and attempting to blend in with the locals. As an interior architect, a photographer, and a woman who had lost her beloved husband, I especially longed to see the Taj Mahal, a shrine to eternal love. I arrived by horse-drawn carriage in the early morning and sat in solitude alongside the reflecting pond, taking in the purity of the white marble and the beauty of the architecture. A surreal feeling swept over me. Looking at the smiling faces reminded me that I was in a setting filled with eternal love for the past, but, more importantly, I was in a place that was providing eternal love for the present and the future. -Mitzi Mayer, San Diego
