One Night in Bangkok

I have clearly now failed in my attempts at blogging every single day.

I also failed at not eating sugar today.

Perfection continues to allude me.

I returned in the wee hours of Wednesday morning from a short girl's trip to Bangkok.  It was my adventure group minus three of our girls who couldn't make it.  We are saying goodbye to Katie and Sharon in the next couple of weeks and an adventurous trip seemed the only way to properly send them off.

All this leaving and saying good-bye just sucks.

I apologize for being crass but using the word "stinks" or "yucky" just doesn't adequately describe how hard it is.  

People come and go quickly.  Most don't really know when their time is going to be up.  There are those who come for two years and are still here after ten.  There are those who come for two years and find out six months into their stay that they are going back.

Many lunch conversations center around guessing and anticipating where life will have any one of us in the next year.  It is odd to be with friends and not one of them knows for sure where they'll be living 12 months from now.  

It certainly brings a sense of urgency to life.  Not a school vacation is wasted when there are places in this part of the world to see.  There are adventures to be had and conversations to enjoy.  Dinner parties to plan and sightseeing to be done.  You invest in your friends because you need them to survive.  You embrace differences in culture and backgrounds because those things make life richer.  

One night in Bangkok we sat around a dinner table.  Six of us that don't come from the same place, believe in the same things, or know where life is leading us next.  Six of us that were able to toast friendships that have strengthened and enriched our lives and stretched our thinking.  Six of us that knew, without giving voice to it, that we'd never have that moment again.  Six of us that missed the three that weren't there.  Six of us that will never forget how our lives crossed in this small country.  Six of us that would say our lives are better for it.  

To all of my friends that are leaving........I will miss you terribly.  You will leave a void but I'm thankful for every moment we had together......I just wish we had many, many more.

Thank you for making me realize what it means to live a life of urgency.  To not waste a single moment when every moment counts for something.

"But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angles in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Be on guard!  Be alert!  You do not know when that time will come."  Mark 23: 32-33