It's official. Well if it wasn't previously 'official', then it's official now. I have purchased les tickets for Taiwan for both Ryan and myself. We leave March 12th (that's a Sunday) at 9:45 in the am and arrive in Taipei sometime in the evening of the 13th.
It's a little bit weird. This whole transition thing. The place you once fit no longer fits you. Your people get stranger by the minute with the realization that you won't be there a month from now... or they are oblivious. Or they pretend to be oblivious. It's undecided.
Status on the preparations::: stuff has been given away (with food, beers and cheers to boot), first load of belongings have been shipped up north to the momz, posters will come off the wall today, as well as the altar coming down, etc. Ryan and I are living completely out of the bedroom, the livingroom having become a giant empty white room. Oh, and I bought a suitcase. A pink suitcase. There remains very little to pack. Just the suitcases (obviously), winter clothes (because we need them! it's cold outside!), and some small bits and pieces here and there.
I bought a book a couple days ago (randomly while buying a gift for a friend): Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion by Pema Chodron. The title sounds totally cheesey, but it's a collection of Buddhist teachings on fear and compassion. I opened the book before going to bed the other night and came across this:
A woman is running from tigers. She runs and she runs, and the tigers are getting closer and closer. She comes to the edge of a cliff. She sees a vine there, so she climbs down and holds on to it. Then she looks down and sees that there are tigers below her as well. At the same time, she notices a little mouse gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries emerging from a nearby clump of grass. She looks up, she looks down, and she looks at the mouse. Then she picks a strawberry, pops it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly.
Tigers above, tigers below. This is the predicament we are always in. We are born and sooner or later we die. Each moment is just what it is. Resentment, bitterness, and holding a grudge prevent us from seeing and hearing and tasting and delighting. This might be the only moment of our life, this might be the only strawberry we'll ever eat. We could feel depressed about this or we could finally appreciate it. We could delight in the preciousness of every single moment.
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