Straddling the present: A foot in the past and one in the future

I went 'home' for Christmas. Home is itself a transient location, packing up bags and following my parents wherever they are. So this Christmas home was in Thailand. It was good to go to this home, a place of many memories and thoughts.

I am narcistically amused at myself in Thailand as I am catapulted back into the world of my high school days and I try to act grown up within that context. I laugh at myself as I interact with old friends, talk about days gone by, and try to find things to do besides go to movies, eat food, and hang out in malls.... like we did in high school. I had never thought about how places and the experiences that formed those places push certain expectations upon you.
I went to a reunion of sorts, on top of a hotel by the river to celebrate new years. These friends had stayed in touch and were still close, probably closer in some ways than the friends they had all made in college. Not my experience and yet I found myself drawn back into the world they had always lived in. It was nostalgic for me, yet present for them. I come back the one looking the same on the outside, yet feeling different in temperament, cares, concerns, person. How to interact?

I visited lexie keller in Bangkok to and saw into the future. Lexie is working with Servant Partners and has planted herself in the Bangkapi slums, living incarnationally. She has intentionally relocated to Thailand with the goal of long term ministry to the Thai people. When I hung out with her, she had only been in Thailand for a month, a lifetime in her new 'home' ahead of her. I envied her sense of purpose while I was encouraged by her zeal and faith in a God that works. The future... a future I don't usually experience in the 'home' of my past. But I guess 'home' will always be associated with past, until home does not pack bags and move with the fam... when home is where I plant myself.

I connected with an old friend who is moving to Turkey soon as a lifetime minister w/ AOG. Making new homes, the future.

I wonder what future is in store for me, what homes I will create, leave, plant, and thrive in? I wait expectantly as God begins to unveil these things.

New Beginnings

After many years of loyal xanga blogging, I've finally decided that it's time to start again.

I have a bad habit. I have moments where I see something, I hear something that makes me think. But I'm a lazy thinker and so I don't let myself really reflect on what it is that I am realizing. So this blog is going to be a place to let those thoughts unravel, unfold... and come to whatever end they will, either inane or insightful.

I find that the truth often is in the cracks between the maxims by which I interpret and live my life. Truth, in some ways, is too strong a word. Perhaps reflection is a better posture of seeking things out.

Well, let's see how this goes... along with reflections will probably be dilbert cameos amongst other things. cheers!