Making the transition from the northern hills of Thailand to one of the largest cities in the world requires time. Time to adjust to the culture of the city.
It is virtually impossible to go anywhere outside the Thammasat University campus without embarking on a major, and usually cluttered, highway. While this is by no means unordinary by Bangkokian standards, it is a bit unnerving to a Farang (Westerner) who, for the past few months, spent much of his time riding around in the sparsely inhabited mountains and valleys of Northern Thailand.
A long time ago, while bartending in Flagstaff Arizona, an old-timer told me that the key to success in life is one must be able to accept change. Everything changes. He had lost his wife, moved several times for business around the country, and at that moment was newly retired. Whether it be self-imposed, or simply a product of life, change is inevitable. They key is the ability to adapt to this change.
One of the beautiful things in life is change. Without change life would simply be one day ticking past the next with no real means of measurement. Even for the Buddhist Monks of Thailand, living only in orange robes and on the handouts from the lay-people, living in the same monastery year after year, days are measured by change. The goal is to change the mind. It constitutes years of effort to change the mind from discontentment to contentment, no easy task. It is about change.
So, from the days of building log homes in the rural mountains of Colorado, climbing around on the massive trusses in the crisp cold clear air gazing at the snow-covered peaks, to teaching English amidst the buzzing smoke-belching highways of Bangkok, once again change has come. From my twenty-something days to my forty-something days, change has come. And for the handful of people that read this blog, I know change has come – I hope everyone is adapting well.
