Sharing Our Vermont Home in India

Indian hospitality is so over the top, unless you experience the graciousness, you can't possibly imagine it. Returning from my three plus weeks in Hyderabad to Bangalore, my suitcase is full of gifts, many from people who do not have $13 a month to buy groceries. I'm not kidding.

Knowing full well I would meet such loving people and not be able to reciprocate by inviting them to my Vermont home, I made a plan. I would bring a bit of Vermont with me.

What did I bring? Little handmade sachets, full of dry balsam needles. I cut the tree down in our woods last fall, and dried the needles in paper bags. In January, my mother, Kay Greeley, and I sewed little bags and filled them with the fragrant needles...topped off with a few decorative bags.

In the past three months, I have given more than 12 dozen bags away across India, to folks I meet on trains, at church, in yoga classes, through friends, at workshops and especially in Hyderabad, at the meetings with the hardworking mothers.

As I hand out the sachets, I always say, "Take a deep breath and sigh. Relax. Now you know what it is like to be in our Green Moutain woods, this beautiful smell of Christmas trees. If you ever do have a chance to visit our home, you will recognize this relaxing fragrance from today!"