Rice Rice Baby

The wandering continues...

In the coming days I'll be heading to Thailand to pursue a long held dream of mine: to 'do' the whole rice growing season (or most of it anyway!) As a kid growing up in the hills and valleys, fields and forests of Maehongson, I was always home from school for summer vacation/holiday and so I've witnessed the initial field preparation, the plowing and harrowing and transplanting of rice. I've more than once fallen off the edge of the field into the mud. Before most everyone switched to plowing their fields with large oversize roto tillers, I would often go out with my neighbors and friends in the late afternoon and bring home the water buffalo that used to be used for plowing. But then I went back to school and I never saw anything  else...the growing... the actual harvest. 

A trial run 10 years ago in Napajat

So this year, I'm going to do it. 

Just because. 

First, I'm only able to to this because Andrea has given her blessing, and knows that for whatever reason, this hair brained idea/scheme/dream is important to me. For this I am grateful. It is not without some significant sacrifice.

With my recent job transition and the ability to work remotely I can do some virtual work for KonTerra so I'm not completely living off Andrea's continued full time labor while I'm 'outstanding' in my field:-) (She is also outstanding in her field by the way!)

After seven years of pretty intense work here in DC and around the world, I can tell I'm needing a bit of a break and breather. So I'm treating this as sabbatical and rest - even though I'll still be doing some virtual counseling work and a whole lot of physical work - which I think will be helpful for me. I'm hoping a few months away from living in the epicenter of craziness will help neutralize (?) and work out some of my angst at our current political climate and I desperately just need a break from it. This will serve both purposes nicely.

And let's face it, at some point, my young youthful body won't be able to do this as easily. Rice growing is backbreaking work - there's a song I learned in Tagalog that is translated - planting rice is never fun, you can't stand up, you can't sit down. 

And though I didn't think about it when deciding to do this, I realize that perhaps I can model what self care could look like to others. Maybe it won't be growing rice, but what does it look like to take a break every now and then, to be replenished and rejuvenated - even if in mid career?

And it's a chance to go to a place... places... I call home. 

A little blurry, but this is it, one of the places I call home (PaTyng) and some of the fields I will be working. 

So for all these reasons. It's time. 

That's the plan. Follow along here on the blog or on facebook. If you're the praying kind, I value your prayers for rest and grace in all I encounter, that I don't lose a toe, that the snakes stay away, you know the usual things. 

 Duncan