Two months in the UK - the People

 After two months in Seattle I set out again on part three of what has become my 'eat pray love' tour. For someone who appreciates alliteration,  the British Isles sounded like a good destination to follow Bermuda and Bangkok. And it also sounded really good to see friends - many of which I had not seen for decades. So I set off at the end of September, flying into Dublin and catching the bus up to Belfast where I soon was doing exactly what I hoped to be doing - being with good friends in beautiful countryside - within a couple hours of arrival, Alan had me geocaching all over the place:-) 

This post captures the friends I was able to see on the journey.

Leaving Seattle - nice view of West Seattle

Flying over Ireland...

...into Dublin

Setting off with Alan and the dogs

Geocaching with Alan and Hetty

Alan and Hetty, Chrissy and Dave and Lola!

From N. Ireland it was off to Glasgow to meet up with friend and Chefoo classmate  from first grade Fi and her husband Dave as well as sister Nini and their parents...and then I continued wandering south meeting up with friends including many former classmates along the way. 

Covid kept us from having dinner together but we were able to skype with Graham Ellis and his wife Joyce.

Lovely Scottish tea with Bob and Jan Trelogan

Nini and some of her artwork

A side excursion to somewhere tropical? or Inchacailloch on Loch Lomond!

In case anyone was wondering where we were...

Meeting Langley in Edinburgh

Miriam in Durham

Paul Briffa and family in Manchester

Innspire and Coincidences

And on the 8th day I was released from captivity...and after a couple nights in the Sukhumvit area, I made the move westward on Saturday toward the Chao Phraya river and the oldest part of Bangkok where my friends Iven and Kashmira (and their six delightful children) live, in a very typical old town neighborhood in Phra Nakhon. Iven and Kashmira are friends who I met here 12 years ago (pre-children) and who also call Seattle one of their home bases, though I have never seen them there - only here in Bangkok! They are very intentional, genuine followers of Jesus who I really like. They have walked with me this past year from Thailand and I am grateful for their input into my life. You might recall that they came to visit me two years ago when I was doing the rice growing season up in Maehongson - which certainly cultivated my connections with them and their kids. I have stayed in their neighborhood before which though just minutes to the Grand Palace and other major tourist sites in BKK is a very Thai non touristy part of Bangkok. 

Though many in their neighborhood barely hold on to life at times, it is a place that draws me and where I feel a measure of peace. It is a place that is very different from the 23rd floor of the Double Tree quarantine hotel. Perhaps it is a liminal space. I don't think it is a coincidence that I am here. I also don't think it is a coincidence that I have ended up staying at a guest house called Innspire. AND I am their first guest in a year. The realities of Covid and its effects on shutting tourism down are very very stark throughout Bangkok. While I take no pleasure in any of the suffering that so many are facing, it is a very unique time to be here.

And I am the ONLY one staying in this 9 room guest house that once was a house that palace employed actors and artisans stayed many decades ago. Did I say I am the only one here?! Literally. The manager met me, walked me around, gave me the key and said the place is yours. He shows up to make breakfast for me - which will soon end, because that's just silly - I can take care of myself! On the other side of the wall is khlong/canal that runs into the Chao Phraya river, it also connects with the Saen Saeb canal (for those familiar with Bangkok.) There's a temple on on the other side of the khlong, lots of cats, lots of all kinds of community hanging out, big fish and monitor lizards in the khlong (not quite as large as the recent 7-11 star on social media if you happened to see that video) And Iven and Kashmira's place is a 5 minute walk away past people selling amulets and random found and repurposed items that are spread out on mats on the sidewalk, women sitting on plastic chairs selling themselves, and of course many many food carts...as I said, it is a liminal space.

I know I am a visitor here at the moment and I'm not engaged in anyone's story - though I have heard many stories over the years from I and K - other than mine. But it is to this place that I have felt drawn though it is far from the peaceful forests and rice fields up north. And so I will try to be present to the gifts and the needs around me and to attend to my spirit and soul and listen and be present to the movement of the Spirit that leads and guides and gives life - even in a place where many only would see death and much much pain.

Breakfast fruit at Innspire

Duncan

Wondering...

 You might be wondering how long will I be here in Bangkok and what I will be doing? Two very good questions and the answers to both are unknown at this point. Initially I was planning on getting a longer term visa (up to 9 months) but logistics and the situation on the ground and in my heart changed  since leaving Bermuda, so my visa is for two months with the option of extending a month...we'll see how it goes in the next few weeks.

As to what I'll be doing...for sure continuing to work on my Thai, I've (re)taught myself to read and write again over the past few months - just finished working through this page here - but at times it's laborious at times and my brain feels like mud...so many rules to remember!! Maybe this is age, maybe jetlag...

I originally planned to spend most of my time up north where I did the fields two years ago and will probably get up there for a few days but most of my time will be spent in Bangkok and hopefully getting to the beach and visiting places I've never been, but some of this will be determined by Covid and individual province regulations and quarantines. Despite my wandering status this year, I really do want and need to have some semblance of community around me and I am hopeful for that here in Bangkok and being able to reconnect with friends and make new ones.

Part Two of the answer to what will I be doing...is perhaps a little deeper...

I woke up at 2:30 in the morning of my second night here (thank you again jet lag) to a terrific thunderstorm and lightning show and suddenly realized that I am on the second leg of my 'eat pray love' tour. Though my story and journey is not the same as Elizabeth Gilbert's, I appreciate the categories to play and work with.

Bermuda was less about literal eating, but it was about paying attention to and nourishing my body and my senses. I needed to be surrounded by water and sky. I needed to be able to plunge under the water and disappear. I needed the crashing waves that could end my life if I wasn't careful. I needed the challenge of currents, of the cold and the deep. I needed to encounter 'the other' in the form of underwater beauty, creatures, colorful, watchful, usually not but sometimes dangerous... I also needed to be surrounded by asparagus ferns and spice tree forests, sea grapes, hibiscus and so many other plants that covered the hillsides. I needed the wind and the salty air. I needed to run up and down hills and fill my lungs with Atlantic air, I needed to watch the blue sky and hear the rain. I needed to hear the little frogs singing at night. All of this calmed my body, strengthening it and I hope providing some healing.

Thailand is about attending to my spirit and my soul. As soon as I arrive in Thailand I am calm and content and at peace. I don't understand this but it's always been that way. I won't be hanging out in an ashram ala Elizabeth Gilbert but I will be with community that challenges and encourages my faith even through language and cultural differences and often an inability to understand.

Don't ask about the love  portion of the trip (how about we use the word friendship or community??) but the tickets are booked for that too - later on this year. Hopefully I will see a few of you on that third leg of the journey!

Duncan

Wandering... (but of course)

7 day room with a view

Hello from Bangkok. Today is day six of my 7 day quarantine in Bangkok. One more full day and then I'll be released on Wednesday. I'm thankful I arrived when I did as two days later and I would have had to do the full 14 days (even fully vaccinated) - Thailand's 'answer' to some Bangkok hi-so locals getting a little too wild at night clubs is of course to make the tourists pay (but I digress!) With this latest uptick in Covid cases (again it's all relative compared to India, the US...they're still at less than 400 deaths altogether in the past year) Bangkok has once again been mostly shut down. From my 23rd floor window, streets appear relatively empty of people, taxis...we'll see once I am released if it is as surreal as flying here...but how did I end up back in this country I love??

Room to stretch out

Airplane food...how I've missed you...

After 5 months in Bermuda, two months in Seattle and more hoops and paperwork than you can imagine,  (see this link from a blogger who captured it nicely so I don't have to recreate all that it entailed), I left Seattle last Monday, flying to Seoul on a Korean Air plane built to carry 300 passengers but having less than 50. After having been through US airports over the course of the last year and seeing life coming back to many of them in recent months, I was shocked to see how empty Seoul's Incheon was. A terminal that is usually teeming with thousands of excited/weary travelers looking like they are wandering through a high end glitzy mall - well you can see the photo  - there were so few people...nobody - but all the stores were still open. And the Korean lounge (that I am not a fan of) that is usually packed to the gills - at the most it had 15 people in it.

Everyone watching the same show? No, no passengers here. 

Empty Incheon terminal

Empty lounge

And then I arrived in Bangkok - along with another 50 or so passengers, just like my flight from Seattle and disembarked hoping and praying that all my paperwork was in order. Taxiing into the terminal, I could see rows of parked planes lined up with engines sealed (as was the case in Korea) waiting for the day that they might take to the sky again. As we exited the plane and began walking toward immigration, plastic chairs were lined up 3 in a row, (of course distanced from each other) and there we sat amid a flotilla/bevy of eager young Thai assistants who quickly lined up to check our paperwork and make sure it was in order...and then did it again 15 minutes later. We had to wait for our turn at the health counter where a nurse or doctor would check our paperwork, vaccine proof and ultimately decide how many days of quarantine to dispense.

Arrive and wait

Arrive and wait

So anyone that has been to Thailand knows that labor is cheap(er), thus the flotilla of helpful people to check our paperwork - probably a greater number than all the passenger passengers - but the health counter only had six medical personnel!  So in spite of good intentions and lots of personnel, a bottle neck was quickly revealed but we were only 50 people so it was ok. But the system clearly won't work when there is anything close to normal in passenger quantity. After the health counter we sat down in additional chairs before being escorted 10 at a time to immigration where (wait for it) there were so many immigration officials at each counter - more than I have ever seen in BKK - and BKK is notorious for sometimes having a 2-3 hour wait in line to get your passport stamped...I wish this many immigration officials would usually be on hand. (hint hint)...and all along the way are other officials directing us, this way and that - and EVERY ONE is masked and gowned, gloves, surgical hat - ok maybe not the immigration people but everyone else. So after a quick stop at immigration, it was a quicker stop to collect my bags and then through customs to be met by more gowned officials outside in the arrival area....which was DEAD quiet! 

Shock number 2 of the day: if you have arrived in BKK or any large Asian airport you know what the arrivals side of the terminal is like. You usually have to push your way through hordes of people and signs and taxi drivers trying to pick you up. This time, silence - no taxi drivers, no family members, just surgically encased officials - one of whom quickly approached me, found my name on a list and escorted me to my taxi that would take me to my quarantine hotel. I was asked to get in the car, take off my shoes which were placed in a red plastic bag and sprayed with something pungent (as were my bags), given a pair of slippers to wear and then it was off on the highways into town - highways that normally can still be super busy and fast even at 2am. Now silent. No traffic. It was really like I had been picked up at the airport to go to a funeral. Very surreal. My driver looked like a surgeon going to do a heart replacement.

And so we arrived at my hotel - a Hilton Doubletree (because...points) where I pad on into a back entrance in my slippers. The whole hotel is being used as a quarantine hotel and they were super organized. I was quickly checked in and finally after a shower and some work emails I slept at 3AM only to wake up at 6:30 or so....

So for the past week my routine has been - wake up early between 2:30 and 4:30 (because jetlag), spend several hours in prayer (just kidding on that one), wait for my meals to appear at whatever time I ordered them - the doorbell rings and a bag magically appears on a saran wrapped chair that sits outside my door. Everything is covered in plastic - even the carpet. I order my meals the day before - breakfast, lunch, dinner - from a rotating western, Asian or healthy menu. I get my KonTerra work done, have spoken with a few clients, do my Thai study, read, try to move a little so I can still squeeze out the door when I leave this room in a couple days...

Every meal arrived in a brown paper bag

Duncan

Words that have Sustained - Part II - Lent 2021

Lent...another period of waiting...preparation...

Weren't we just doing that for Advent?

If I'm honest, I am often tired of the waiting

For what's next...for the already not yet

For this to be over.

So we continue to wait

And be present

Attending to the small and the great things all around

As we continue to journey together.

More words that continue to sustain me... from people and places that inspire and move me.

Josh Garrels The Light Came Down was my steady music companion this past Advent and Christmas. I don't know if I'll be able to post every day during Lent but his closing song on that record feels like a good connection from Advent to Lent and a good starting place to begin this Lenten journey. 

Lost and weary traveler, searching for the way to go.

Stranger, heavy-hearted, longing for someone to know.

May you find a light.

May you find a light.

May you find a light to guide you home.

There are weary travelers, searching everywhere you go.

Strangers who are searching, longing deeply to be known

Previously Lent series posts focused on a single author/artist - Anne Lamott, Rich Mullins, Jonathan Heppner, as well as Kris Rock and Scott Dewey's Meal from Below book. This year I don't have one person (but I'll be pulling from some of these previous sources) and some themes are starting to emerge - certainly the words of poets, the importance of place, and something about the journey...pilgrimage perhaps (those of you who know me know I always appreciate alliteration!) - or perhaps that is just the ongoing theme of life.

To start with, a reminder of the importance of poets and poetry...

'The word workmanship (in Ephesians 2:10) is the word poema in Greek, from which we get the English word poem. We are God’s poem or poetry in the world. What a beautiful image! Whatever else the urban poor (and I would add, all of us really) need today, they need more poetry and less prose. Our exhaustive prose has become a millstone. It’s filled with monologue and imposes blame because it is so often derived from places of privilege and power. In this end, it suffocates, even when is aim is to liberate. Perhaps this is why the great Hebrew prophets were also poets. Perhaps this is why Jesus told riddles and stories. Poets let the air in, and create room for us to breathe again.' Meal from Below pp34-35 Kris Rocke and Scott Dewey

While the locals in Bermuda would disagree, there really aren't cold winter days, so I Included this photo of trees taken during a quick trip to DC in January this year. 

Winter Morning

When I can no longer say thank you
for this new day and the waking into it,
for the cold scrape of the kitchen chair
and the ticking of the space heater glowing
orange as it warms the floor near my feet,
I know it is because I’ve been fooled again
by the selfish, unruly man who lives in me
and believes he deserves only safety
and comfort. But if I pause as I do now,
and watch the streetlights outside winking
off one by one like old men closing their
cloudy eyes, if I listen to my tired neighbors
slamming car doors hard against the morning
and see the steaming coffee in their mugs
kissing their chapped lips as they sip and
exhale each of their worries white into
the icy air around their faces—then I can
remember this one life is a gift each of us
was handed and told to open: Untie the bow
and tear off the paper, look inside
and be grateful for whatever you find
even if it is only the scent of a tangerine
that lingers on the fingers long after
you’ve finished eating it.

-James Crews

'Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me, and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear, and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.' -Howard Thurman

(More from Street Psalms and Kris Rocke...Thurman was a contemplative activist through and through. He recognized that direct encounter with God and direct action with humanity is where the Gospel comes alive. Encounter and action is the way of Jesus.)

From my Meal from Below Lent series five years ago...still good words for today...

How do we embrace being fully human, open and mindful and present? Perhaps if we can't embrace it, we start by not judging...just being aware and attentive to all that swirls within and around us - the beauty and the brokenness...

We are forever running from and neglecting the deepest mysteries of our human lives-missing the truth that our humanness itself bears the gift of our salvation. As Paula D’Arcy observes, God comes to us disguised as our lives. God comes most naturally through broken people and broken places and well as our own broken experience to say, ‘I am here!’ This is the way of the Lord…God typically resists the spectacular appearance, knowing how prone we are to deny and escape these earthen vessels in favor of some heavenly vision. That is why TS Elliot claimed that the Incarnation is always in the ‘unattended moment.’ Meal from Below p 44 Kris Rocke and Scott Dewey

A liberated soul is a pierced soul, one that has experienced the piercing of its own violence, and one that has experienced the piercing of grace. The liberated soul is secure and at peace, held in mercy by the graceful One – Jesus, the Prince of Peace. This is our anointing. Meal from Below pp50-51 by Kris Rocke and Scott Dewey

God does not send us out into the desert to die. Though we may feel that we have been in the wilderness of Lent for a long time this year, we are not without lots of well-seasoned guides. It is reassuring to know that thousands have walked out into the desert, led by God, before us and not only survived but thrived and grown in intimacy with God as a result of their experiences.

Beloved Is Where We Begin

If you would enter

into the wilderness,

do not begin

without a blessing.

Do not leave

without hearing

who you are:

Beloved,

named by the One

who has traveled this path

before you.

Do not go

without letting it echo

in your ears,

and if you find

it is hard

to let it into your heart,

do not despair.

That is what this journey is for.

I cannot promise

this blessing will free you

from danger,

from fear,

from hunger

or thirst,

from the scorching

of sun

or the fall

of the night.

But I can tell you

that on this path

there will be help.

I can tell you

that on this way

there will be rest.

I can tell you

that you will know

the strange graces

that come to our aid

only on a road

such as this,

that fly to meet us

bearing comfort

and strength,

that come alongside us

for no other cause

than to lean themselves

toward our ear

and with their

curious insistence

whisper our name:

Beloved.

Beloved.

Beloved.

- Jan Richardson

One of the greatest teachers God gives us is the place where we are. - Dwight Friesen

A good journey begins with knowing where you are and being willing to go somewhere else. - Richard Rohr.

(Overlooking Horseshoe Bay from the Fairmont Southampton, Bermuda)

Sometimes you have to let go of the picture of what you thought it would be like and learn to find joy in the story you are actually living. - Rachel Marie Martin

Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don't belong. - Mandy Hale

(the bench - part 2, Bermuda)

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire.

-John O'Donohue

Bermuda faves and farewell for now....

Regular updates of the blog got a little behind since Christmas! After a quiet, peaceful, and somewhat lonely Christmas, another guest was coming to stay at the amazing Bridge house (Airbnb #3 - see my previous updated housing post) so I had to move on - but I was very happy to move back to where I started my time in Bermuda... at Airbnb #1 with Karen and Danny. 

As the temperature dipped down into the 60's I still got some good swimming and snorkeling time but the time definitely decreased as even with a wetsuit jacket it was beginning to get a little chilly and I could only stay in the water for 15-20 minutes at a time before I got started getting cold. I began spending more time out of the water and  exploring the island from tip to tip, visiting a few more museums, learning more history and of course comparing fish sandwiches. 

By the end for February I was munching on loquats as they came into peak season all over the island and the Suriname Cherry bushes and hedgerows were covered in delicate white flowers in preparation for their next season. And I was preparing for my next season - bidding farewell to my island home, not knowing what lay ahead but knowing for sure that Bermuda will beckon me back. 

On March 1 I flew back to Seattle - not the ideal time weather wise to return to the Pacific Northwest but...

(Below - a few photos of many giving a small taste of my time in Bermuda)