It is a Pope Mobile

Guess who is using my pope mobile? 

A few weeks ago, I shared a picture of my pope mobile to which someone piped up - "It's a golf buggy".  Well, here is the proof.  This is no golf buggy.  It surely is a pope mobile. 

The papal visit is well and truly over.  It is now the week before Christmas and the shutting down of another year.  It all happens so quickly that one's year deserves a time dedicated to review and reflection.  Otherwise, we just get lost in the rough and tumble of life, rolling on without a stop, not knowing what is what.  Life is what you make of it but first you have to be aware so as to be able to make it for yourself.

So I will try to capture in some simple way my 2019.

Monsignor turns 60. 

Balloons flying for a beloved home of faith that turned 100 in 2019

History of a church turning 350 years.

Where we came from

Marathon for a cathedral turning 100

How the early church recorded its history

How the church first got here

A fun temple shared with a special visitor

Refugee children enjoy fun in the pool

A Grand Palace shared with a special friend.

As I look at my pictures of 2019, I see two key themes. It has been a year for celebrating people and history that make up my life.  As always, there have been the difficulties and challenges but they do not capture 2019.  Rather my year is defined richly by significant people and significant events that speak to who I am.  All the rest is part of life that neither limits nor confines me.

I am reminded that I am part of something much bigger than myself, seeing many different and interconnected parts making up a whole.  It highlights the many interconnections that make up any of us.  Whether my focus is Church or friends, it is Thai and Australian and much more.  I am part of a universal reality.         
  

Loy Krathong wiles the slate clean for another year. 

As I decided for myself at the start of the new Church Year, 2020 is for living less burdened and letting go for the sake of life and what really matters.  I will get there.  After all, it is a pope mobile even if someone else thinks it is a golf buggy.

Above all, Christmas is here.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

And Christmas does come every year.