Chinese Proverb: He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.
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Friday, January 27, 2006
Canada in Retirement - Day 17
It's been over 2 weeks since I've returned "home." I've seen former coworkers and friends. I enjoyed superb vegetarian food in a new downtown Calgary cafe. I've watched the sunset while travelling down the 'new' Queen Elizabeth II highway. I laugh about how I'm enjoying being retired. I tell stories of my kindergarten students and their wet slobbery kisses. I prattle on about the butterflies that will soon be taking flight in thousands around Taiwan. I am wistfull about the pink cherry blossoms and the darting yellow birds that feast on their nectar at YangMingShan.
I've avoided making my thoughts public since I've returned. In Taiwan you are unreachable; a paragon of adventure by virture of your distance from home. When you return, you find that you are startlingly normal in appearance but disparate in thought. My ever-increasing ability to speak as a politician who talks for hours but says nothing surprises me. Was Canada always this black and white? Were the skies always this blue, the fields always this brown? I have become accustomed to the shades of grey that pervades all aspects of life in Taiwan.
I'm staying in my grandparents spare room on their acreage. Blue-jays chase each other through the dark green pine trees and a bored black horse nods sleepily in it's snow dusted padock. The temperature is unseasonably warm and the sun shines golden in the crystalline blue sky. It's quiet and idyllic. My scrapbooking remains undone in untidy heaps by the bottom of my spacious queen-sized bed. Instead, I opt to help my grandmother make quilts for the orphans in the Ukraine. I am reminded of what I have read about Taiwan's orphans and my thoughts stray, yet again, to Asia.
There is no return ticket. Yet, the great grey expanse calls me to push myself a bit further out of my comfort zone. I suspect there is always a gem of experience available anytime you allow yourself to take the chance.
T. Destiny in Waiting
I've avoided making my thoughts public since I've returned. In Taiwan you are unreachable; a paragon of adventure by virture of your distance from home. When you return, you find that you are startlingly normal in appearance but disparate in thought. My ever-increasing ability to speak as a politician who talks for hours but says nothing surprises me. Was Canada always this black and white? Were the skies always this blue, the fields always this brown? I have become accustomed to the shades of grey that pervades all aspects of life in Taiwan.
I'm staying in my grandparents spare room on their acreage. Blue-jays chase each other through the dark green pine trees and a bored black horse nods sleepily in it's snow dusted padock. The temperature is unseasonably warm and the sun shines golden in the crystalline blue sky. It's quiet and idyllic. My scrapbooking remains undone in untidy heaps by the bottom of my spacious queen-sized bed. Instead, I opt to help my grandmother make quilts for the orphans in the Ukraine. I am reminded of what I have read about Taiwan's orphans and my thoughts stray, yet again, to Asia.
There is no return ticket. Yet, the great grey expanse calls me to push myself a bit further out of my comfort zone. I suspect there is always a gem of experience available anytime you allow yourself to take the chance.
T. Destiny in Waiting
Posted by T. Destiny in Taiwan at 1:54 AM 
You are welcome in my home any time.
Gavin
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Your feelings are normal I think. Having gone away, and then coming back and seeing things with your new eyes...it will be different forever. Kind of like moving into a new house....it never quite feels like your childhood home.
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