Can it be that I’ve lived in Asia more than 10
years now?
Some
days, it never once strikes me that I’m the only blond for miles; an oddball
foreigner. I go about my day, doing the tasks one does to keep the gears of
life running, not thinking about my blessed and unusual life being in the midst
of fascinating sights and practices and languages. I don’t think about the
ethnicity of some of the sweetest friends I’ve ever known, I just think how
great it is to be a godmother, or how soon I’ll get another foot massage with Namiko,
if Yi Hui will stop by or how I should probably do more jazzercise than the
once a week trip to the Clementi Sports Complex with my next door neighbor
Jeannette.
Some
days, however, I try not to leave the apartment because I don’t want be a head
taller than everyone else in the supermarket line again. Ever.
I might
very well have been the only Caucasian person on the flight I took to meet Jim
in Ho Chi Minh City that week. I didn’t really notice.
I talked
nearly the whole time with Brian, a young salesman for a new English
multiplatform magazine for enjoying life and culture in Vietnam. He was a bit afraid
of flying so I just kept him talking. We talked and talked about family; about
his schooling in Singapore; about soulless people of the city; about the
vibrancy of developing countries like Cambodia and Vietnam; about personal
productivity systems for keeping a hyper-creative person organized and
realistic. About experiences in life that make have made me absolutely
convinced that it’s more than just “fate” but that there is a personal God who
knows and loves us and wants us to know him as our Heavenly Father.
“I’m so
encouraged to meet a person like you.” He said.
“Yeah?”
“Forgive
me, but, it’s just that…for your age…you have so much life.”
I
laughed.
“It’s
encouraging to think that in your 50’s you can still have so many ideas and
thoughts. And that you enjoy life.”
“Well,
the way I see it, I’m only a little more than ½ way to the end of this side of
eternal life. I got a long, long lot of time left.”
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