Re-entry reflexions

Beloved --

Now that I've been back in the States for a month (and paid my taxes on time, for once), I'm having a little time to reflect. Several friends have asked me "What was your favorite part of the trip?" I am flummoxed. It feels like being asked "What is your favorite Christmas tree ornament?" or "What is your favorite star?"
It's a "launching" question. I hope I can give satisfactory answers. But, in truth, right now I don't know.
There was all the cross-cultural art and religious symbolism that I didn't expect. . . .take the Shiva/Buddha above dressed in seasonal garb at Angkor Wat. Or the Churning Sea mythology and work done by the Indian Archeological Society to recover the Khmer temple. Or the ubiquitous signage that confused me when I reflected on how it got translated the way it did. Or the fact that I went nose to nose with a millennium old Khmer king's stone image in an effort to grasp the meaning of it all!
I'm trying to put together such puzzles as the Hindu idea that heaven is a temporary state which is the place of punishment for good deeds! And the Buddhist credo that only two things are needed to find enlightenment--concentration and compassion!

So I respond by writing poetry: Morning Poem
If you listen (carefully)
the first thing you hear each morning
is the song of a single bird--
A song that always starts solo--
sometimes answered by a choir
sometimes by one echoing lover
Seeking with aural torches and
sonorous detonations to
illuminate and identify his once and future mate.
Sleep outside (or with your window open)
to be invited into each new day.
Before you hear the breathing of the one next to you,
Before you hear your own heart beating
if you listen carefully
the first thing you will hear each morning
Is the smile (and wink) of God.

I love you and miss you all,

Jim