We are Family

The birds at the condo now have their baby.  

This week we celebrate All Saints.  Most people out there focus on its eve, Halloween.  I much prefer the feast as we remember our big family, all those who have gone before us and make us who we are today.  All those who have loved us for better or worse.  I would prefer to say - all those who did the best they could for us with who they were.

Whatever we do or believe, whoever we are; life moves on.  The picture here features Om's bird family.  He cares for them and talks to them every day.  They are family and they are are a special part of Om's life.  It just is they are birds - mama bird, papa bird and baby bird.  They are a new and happy family with the arrival of their baby who is now out and about.  They lead a peaceful, blissful life together but behind this family lies a story. 

There was a different papa bird, Kitty, who died earlier in the year.  I remember how sad I felt when Om told me that Kitty had died.  Om got another male bird, Kevin, who, with the ongoing Cindy, produced a baby bird and so now it is the happy family unit.  Every happy family has a story.  A happy ending?  For now, yes.  Families don't just happen.  They take hard work and involve suffering and sacrifice but in the end it is all worth it.  Yes, this week we celebrate with joy our big family.

Church in the City

A monk making a pastoral visit.  

Bangkok is a full on hustle and bustle place, and in a land that is Buddhist, a religion based on peace and meditation.  How does it all figure?  I just look at lived Buddhism from the outside in my Bangkok, trying to make sense of what I see.

Then on my walk from the underground to the refugee centre along a busy road, I see a first with a Buddhist monk sitting at a table with a woman presumably outside her home.  It all just happens in a busy Bangkok with no one paying any attention.

I think how flexible, how adaptable Buddhism can be.  I think isn't it great that the monks go to the people.

Then my good friends here who are Buddhists tell me the monks should stay in their temples and the people go to them.  The trouble is, as they explain to me, is that as monks venture out to the markets and the streets, they are showing themselves to be greedy and opening up Buddhism to corrupt ways.  This is because coming to the people may be more about getting as much as they can from them who are very respectful of their monks and give generously to them.

Ultimately, do I know?  I just trust my friends and confidants on this one who ever give me insights into what is really going on in my Bangkok.  This could be the same in any religion.  As always in my Bangkok, all is never what it seems.  

Life is short; the Journey is long and windy.

Caritas International Global Pilgrimage taken in Solidarity with Migrants

We are all migrants, sharing the journey in life.  While on the journey, hopefully our home is warm and friendly but it surely is not eternal.  This is a good perspective to keep as we take the long and windy journey that is life.  It is a perspective I need before me as I learn that yet another close friend has died.  This is the third such loss in three months.  They have been three significant people in my journey.  Their dying makes me think about where am I in life?

This week I go to Mae Sot with my work on migrants.  Mae Sot is a town up north on the Thai side of the border with Myanmar.  It is a centre for much industry and trade, being named as a Special Economic Zone.  As such, there is a need for labour which is conveniently provided by the Burmese coming across the border, and here they come in big numbers.  They get work but remain poor, often being taken advantage of for the sake of profit.  The migrant population there is diverse, both coming for work and fleeing conflict and oppression at the hands of Myanmar military.  While Mae Sot is now the big centre for migrant workers, it has been in history more the centre for Burmese ethnic refugees.

So Mae Sot is a centre for an underclass population.  They need support and that is our job.  On our work visit, we went to one of the many learning centres, providing education for Burmese children from poor and deprived backgrounds.  Some are orphans as their parents have been killed in the internal conflicts of Myanmar.  I walk around the school.  It is big with 500 students.  It is simple and it is poor looking.  Some children live there and their accommodation looks inadequate.  That is how it impressed me but I also saw that the children do not see the same physical picture as I saw they were simply children together, playing together and enjoying each other.  They also had a school which was their school, the best that could be provided for them.  So who am I to judge their situation with my outside eyes?

Then I refer to my three great friends and mentors, all now dead.  Didn't each show me the way?  Didn't they look after me and just enjoy our being together?  Didn't they show me what really matters in life?  Our being together was never complicated, never judged by anything other than we wanted to be together.  We were friends - no, much more - companions, mates on the journey, and what a journey it is, a journey enriched by our sharing together from what little we have.

The journey is long and windy but that is no matter for what truly matters is with whom we share it. 

Safe Travels

Seat belts on  a Bangkok bus?

The journey can be arduous and tiring.  It can become unhealthily routine.  So any help or change along the way can be appreciated but it would seem I am often too cautious and so at times it is best to just fly.

This week, most unusually, I throw caution out the door and off I go to Pattaya, the popular beach destination for Bangkok.  Truth is it is about much more as it is the notorious centre for "bars and girls" which is why so many older, western males head there.  How I hate Pattaya.  I am not prudish but really "there are only so many offers of sex one can cope with in any one hour", or that is my definition of the place.

Well, here I am.  It was a rushed decision made Monday morning.  I came on the run for a Caritas Asia workshop on communications.  Truth is I made the better choice for the week.  Pattaya or no Pattaya, this has been a profitable opportunity which happened at a time when now I know it was good for me to be out of my usual environment. 

Truth is I travel too safely.  Best to let go and fly free at times.  It is good for the spirit.  Don't be held back by fear of the Pattayas of our world.

Bring him home

Even the local street cats show the decency of looking after each other.  

God on high, hear my prayer.
Bring him home.  Bring him peace.  Bring him joy.
Let him be.  Let him live.
This simple but deep cry from "Les Miserables" rips at our hearts as we are a people yearning for peace, yearning for belonging.  Such basic human quests are never met despite all the advances in our world and all the social movements for justice.  Our world is developing in some ways; humanity appears more engaged in looking after each other but, when you take a hard look at our world, you do wonder how far we have come as a human race.

Then at the start of another week in my Bangkok, I am waiting early morning at the bus stop and witness the most amazing display of care offered by the animal kingdom.  It is dark and before me on the road is a little pussy cat bleating as it is scared and disoriented. This is the middle of a big city with traffic.  So who wouldn't be scared?   I wonder what to do as I am not a great cat lover but still one must do something.  Then to the rescue, comes the adult cat - mum or dad?  It races in, grabs its baby by the back of the neck and takes it safely home.  How incredible to watch!

As one would say - even if a cat can care for its own.  Why can't humanity?