win, lose or draw and Merry Christmas

wow, ok, love northern Thailand. i spent 6 days in the Chaing Mai region. the main thing i wanted to do was take a Thai cooking course, but i ended up kind of doing everything but that. here are the highlights:

- my new vagrant-mates: Sarah, Takashi, Craig, Pong, Sau, Nan, the other Nan, Nuran, Jake, the brother and sister from England, David, Tom, and Stephan, many more
- i fell in love with my seat-mate on the train, Nuran. he is 52 years old college Physics prof, father of three other adult Scientists. he was exuberantly friendly, preciously nerdy and very knowledge of local flora and fauna passing by out the window. he was going to a flower expo in Chaing Mai. for three days he was just going to take photos of flowers and he was so excited. he taught me helpful phrases and numbers in Thai. and offered me unlabeled small, white tablets to take for my cold, which i graciously consumed without a second thought as to whether or not that was a "smart idea". well, they didn't have poison in them. Nuran was really one of those rare unbelievably kind, generous people - he inspires me to love others without expecting anything in return.
- visiting elephant jungle habitat
- riding an elephant with Sarah - more uncomfortably, akwardly scary than i expected
- most phenomonal herbal spa treatment day with Sarah
- super hospitably fun hostel manager
- camping at hot springs with hostel folk
- sitting in outdoor hot spring under the vast Thai sky in the middle of winter (it's weird to be looking at the same stars and constellations that i'm so familiar with in such a foreign context)
- hiking through rice fields along narrow foot paths
- climbing up around the crystal clear, jungly waterfall
- picking passion fruit from tree and scooping out fruit with fingers
- sampling plethora of incredible coffee shops slash health food stores in city
- reading Red Moon Rising and Bible at said coffee shops and under certain trees
- getting lost in city alone and not caring
- joining in on random Thai church's Christmas Eve pary uninvited and completely welcomed - i was looking for, expecting some type of sacred, somber service full of peace and candlelight, but instead when i showed up with my Hawaiian/Japanese semi-religious friend, Takashi, the church members were in the middle of an exciting round of "win, lose, or draw". They encouraged us to partake of their giant buffet of tasty homemade Thai fare and gave us homemade ice cream with corn kernels. we sang, we prayed, we played games, people shared, people loved, the kids put on a Christmas pageant. the first gift they gave me was a little casette of some sermon about prayer, but then we realized that it was in Thai, so they gave me a new present, a coffee mug, with a very artistic photograph of this Western man holding a Western woman. i donated the mug to the hostel and my friend, Takashi left with a nice hand towel that will be very helpful in his travels. it was like they were expecting us or something, like i was meant to spend this Christmas Eve with this small body of believers at Grace Church Chaing Mai in Thailand. it was completely natural, completely novel. it was extraordinary and foreign and familiar all at once. a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. i think God is pleased with that church and their love for one another and for strangers.


i hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, doing old things or new.
i am now back in America - it was a long ride home.
i am trying to embrace the changes in my life.
maybe so they don't "embrace" me or suffocate me.
it's a hard transition.
but i'm choosing joy.
i'm choosing to weep and remember
and i'm choosing joy.

there are many people on this continent that
i would like to hug and to hear from.
all my love,
- m.