SheJumps co-founder Lynsey Dyer checked in from the past month of travel and volunteering in India. She has a profound message to tell us about love, life, and living in the moment.
 
Giving a kid a bike in a developing country is the equivalent of giving him a Ferrari! Besides being one of the most fun toys ever, it offers him a means of transportation. That often means he will eventually transport his entire family on it (I've seen up to 5 on one bike) besides being able to travel for work or supplies.
 
Giving women bikes is even more empowering to them. Usually only men can someday afford a bike so the NGOs here say it's the most direct form of empowerment they've ever seen. Immediately after receiving a bike and feeling the wind on her face for the first time, powered by her own means, these "survivors" take on a whole new persona. They've come from lives of torture in travelling circuses, or as exotic dancers—some cannot even walk properly or have deformed limbs. Others have scars from torture or from being forced into up to 6 years of prostitution in the sex trade all before the age of 16 (one girl was around 8). But safe in the ashram, learning trade skills and riding a bike, it's as if they feel for the first time that they can do anything, that maybe there is good in the world, that they can take care of themselves and don't have to go back to the lives they had before. Now they can ride to the store and buy supplies or take their sewing machines (a trade they are taught in the ashram to be able to support themselves and often times their entire village) to the city to make money.

It was truly an honor to work with these girls, playing games and running around chasing giant frogs like normal kids. Also, helping them paint a mural of what they'd like their futures to look like was a treat. We came away with huge bug bites from who knows what in the beds and a gnarly stomach ache from who knows what in the food but the experience was a lifechanger.

I now have renewed drive to take advantage of all that the western world has to offer. To be the absolute best person I can be with the life I have been so fortunate to have been born into. These girls didn't even have the opportunity to learn to read or write, let alone know how old they were and to them I feel an obligation to make myself as whole a person as possible, as educated as possible, and as mentally strong as possible so that my energy can add to the wholeness of the planet instead of the fear that makes slavery possible. I know trying to save all those who suffer in the world isn't the answer for just one person and that as long as there are sick people who want to take advantage of others, the demand of slavery will persist. The answer, that India taught me, laying in bed one night, listening to dogs howling outside my window, lies in healing ourselves, through education, dealing with our own inner battles and disciplining our thoughts (I believe through meditation) because we really are tiny parts of a bigger whole and what we do and think and feel individually really does affect the larger whole.
 
What can you do? Besides supporting the places and non-profits monitarily that support these kids year round (unlike a few westerners who helped for a few weeks), you can begin by making yourself whole. It may sound new age and my own friends and family will call me crazy but soon, we will learn that what we do to others really does come around, that the only authentic happiness comes from truly being in the moment and expereincing it for what it is and connecting to something bigger than ourselves. True happiness comes from detachment from our egos, from "winning" and gaining more money and power and the fear that there isn't enough for everyone. Peace comes from the inside, from connection to each other, and to the energy all around us. We have so much more potential than we know. I think skiers are some of the people who will change the world. We love being outside and are proving to the rest of the world that humans can do more than most think is possible, we just do it on skis. We are celebrating the mountains, and helping others learn how to participate. We are connecting with the mountains and playing! And as long as we keep our egos in check, we can create healthy communities that support the bigger whole. Though I'm no saint and have only experienced tiny bits of what I'd call wholeness, this is what I'm dedicating myself to now, for myself, for these girls, and for the world.
 
Wishing you wholeness and happy holidays ;-) —Lynsey