A happy group

This week, I share a picture that shows part of my world in Bangkok - the National Catholic Commission on Migration.  The occasion was our six monthly meeting.  You see here all the characters of the outfit and some of them do get mentioned along the way in this blog.  So you might as well get a look at them and see that I do share about real live people.  . 

I have to say as I look at this picture that it amazes me how much good a small group of people can achieve.  It is refreshing to appreciate the good in others as so often we mention others for all the wrong reasons.

The day after this meeting, I had breakfast with a good friend living in retirement in Thailand from Chicago.  He lives in Jomtien and whenever he comes to town, we get together for breakfast at his hotel.  At the end of our breakfast this time, I was asking myself if we had been too negative.  You can guess what we were talking about - politics in the US and Australia but also the life we experience in Thailand.

It strikes me that us expats (I am named as an expat and not as a migrant worker and sometimes I wonder why I get a such a much nicer sounding title in English) spend so much of our time dissecting the country and the people we are immersed in and so much of it can sound so negative.  Stop!

I say to myself that it is not being negative but being realistic and striving to make sense of what we are caught up in, and that is important for appreciation of one's environment and acting on it within it for good.  Otherwise we live a reactionary life, simply suffering what is dished out to us by those around us.

Reality is that life is not all smiles and happiness even in the Land of Smiles.  Everywhere has its strengths and weaknesses, its positives and negatives.  Unlike the rest of the world, here suffers from being presented in the extreme - being the land full of gentle, beautiful people where everyone is happy.  Truth is that here is like everywhere else with its own uniqueness and different characteristics, and its people are human just like on the rest of the planet.  I will often say that I am beyond what I name as the "WOW factor" of Thailand.

Still it is a good place to be with good people and great opportunity.  I appreciate my life here for what it is and what I am able to do, offer and enjoy in the world.   What more can I ask for?

The people that make up my world here are good people but human people which is essential to acknowledge.  Like the rest of humanity, they are limited and fragile, and they are free to be so.  Let them be normal human beings and not exceptional human beings as the system here may like to present.  To think otherwise is dangerous and unfair and leads to distorted thinking and action.  We just soldier on together, making the most of what we enjoy and doing the best we can with what we've got.  What more can one ask for?  Thank God for these happy and normal people with whom I share my life, no matter how limited they may be.  I just have to keep reminding myself of this or otherwise I may easily fall into the dangerous trap of over expectation or over negativity.