The day the world grew small

It was a shock to me, the first time I realized how small the world and fast the airplanes were. I had flown to Aberdeen, Scotland months earlier on my own and it felt like it took forever. But that Sunday, at the end of a week long visit from my mom, the truth surfaced. She and I had breakfast together before I took her to the airport, and as I cleaned up and settled in to the silence of my empty dorm room it hit me that she would be having dinner with my family in Michigan that evening. Breakfast in Aberdeen and dinner in Detroit- I couldn't fathom it.  

Until that point, my family back home felt so far away- an ocean and a time difference and a very expensive phone call stood between us- but that Sunday, everything changed. Sometimes, it's not about being able to see people all the time, but knowing that you can, if you need to. 

Even though the 11 years since Scotland have dramatically shrunk the distances home for expats, Bangkok still feels a whole world away. I no longer have to spend billions on a phone bill (truth, I never paid the large phone bills I racked up in Aberdeen, my dad did that :) or run to a computer lab to send mass email updates to family and friends. I Skype from my living room for free, text with my siblings, and keep a blog of pictures and stories. I watch the same Tigers games on TV the next day and follow everyone's day to day lives on "can't live with it and can't live without it" Facebook. 

But nothing, nothing beats being there. So sometimes, you just gotta get on the plane, shrink the world, and pop in for a few days. Travel hours v. Contact hours, it's not worth it. Dollars per day, it's not worth it. But I knew within 5 minutes if getting out of the car what I had suspected all along: it is absolutely worth it. 100%. My world got a lot smaller this week, in the best way possible. I don't plan to make it a habit of popping into family functions, just as my mom did not make it a habit of having breakfast on one continent and dinner in another. But to know that I can? Changes everything. 

Picture a day September 26

Getting these up a bit late... Only thing to say is, Pure Michigan. 

Picture a day September 25

Your source for everything in Thailand: 7- Eleven. This is my neighborhood seven. There is a small road nearby that we a call market street. It has two 7- Eleven's within a block of each other, and a third going up currently. I hope it's a replacement and not an additional one! I find myself in 7- Eleven for all sorts of reasons. Today I was buying peanuts, raisins, M&M's, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds to go with my cranberries and cashews in a little trail mix. I also pay my electric bill here :) 

Picture a day September 23

I feel like I must have put a picture of this on you blog sometime in the past two years... It's the spirit house at my apartment complex, and I walk past it every time I go anywhere. Most Thai homes have one, so we have one really large one for the entire complex. Growing up in Judeo-Christian based USA, reading about idol worship in the Bible, and all the warnings against it, never really hit home. But here, it's very present. It's not unusual for me to see people worshipping at this spirit house on my way to work in they mornings. It makes me sad to think about these people worshipping something that is not real and is not alive. I hear the verse "eyes that cannot see and ears that and not hear" constantly in my head. I try to pray for people as I walk past, that their eyes and ears would be opened to the truth! 

Tuck: Rocks Beside the Road

I have been thinking a lot lately about one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.  Yes, it's young adult literature, but it's also incredibly good, and really quite deep.  It explores concepts of eternity, of seasons and circles, of change and growth. In one poiniant chapter Pa Tuck has a conversation with our young protagonist, Winnie, in which he explains why living forever and never ageing or changing is actually not a good thing.  His words, rocks beside the road have echoed in my mind for many years.  It's a long quote here, to give you the context,but hang with me. It's that good. 

"Know what that is, all around us, Winnie?" said Tuck, his voice low. "Life. Moving, growing, changing, never the same two minutes together. This water, you look out at it every morning, and it looks the same, but it ain't. All night long it's been moving, coming in through the stream back there to the west, slipping out through the stream down east here, always quiet, always new, moving on...

It's a wheel, Winnie. Everything's a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping. The frogs is part of it, and the bugs, and the fish, and the wood thrush too. And people. But never the same ones. Always coming in new, always growing and changing, and always moving on. That's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way it is...

But dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can't pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing. But it's passing us by, us Tucks. Living's heavy work, but off to one side, the way we are, it's useless too. It don't make sense. If I knowed how to climb back on the wheel, I'd do it in a minute. You can't have living without dying. So you can't call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road. 

Now, Pa Tuck focuses on the dying part of living, but for me, it's more the changing part of living that I don't like. I don't even like changing shampoo much less anything actually important. Or big. But Tuck's words remind me time and time again that if I'm not changing, not growing, than I'm not really living. If I don't allow those around me to change and grow, than I'm not allowing them to live either. 

This wheel of change is not easy. Living's heavy work says Tuck. My friends move into town, which means they go to a different church, which means I lose my Sunday lunch buddies and friends at church. We all move on from different things at different times. Kids back home grow and change and I miss major phases and stages. Even my little people that I see all the time- they change faster than you can blink. People come and go, they move, or yes, sometimes they die. We feel the weight of the wheel as it turns and we run to catch up with it, to move on, always new. And somedays when that strain feels too much I remember the alternative, a rock beside the road, and I sigh, and pick up, and keep turning. 

Picture a day September 22

I love the rain here, even when it hits just before I make it home. After my friends dropped me off this evening I had to run into the mini grocery store for milk and by the time I came out the sprinkles had turned quite heavy. I love how people here just stand and wait it out. I am not that patient and my umbrella and I braved the short walk to my apartment. 

A whole new world

My world in Bangkok changed significantly today, and in am so excited. This morning I purchased a VPN, which basically means I can have a US based IP address for my computer, whenever I need to. Why would that change my life? Because now many things that were once out of reach, that were once just part of what I had to give up living overseas, are at my finger tips. In this Olympic year, it means I can watch the performances at competitions all fall that lead up to the Olympics, and the actual Olympics as well. I can watch TV shows on sites like NBC.com, and I can use things like Netflix. 

It may sound small, but being able to watch TV, skating, and some movies is a huge about being overseas for so long without it!