Being grounded

My Bangkok  

I live in a country, where the local culture supports its people to avoid conflict.  I reflect that nobody likes conflict.  I sure don't, but I also know that you can't just always evade it.  Maybe it is more about how we deal with it.  Sure, one does not make a "Last Stand at the Alamo" response each time.  There can be my trap or downfall.  Instead, we choose our fights.  This choosing happens within the context of who we are.  

Who am I?  A central theme in my life is belonging, referring back to my very origins.  Along with this, for me, another central theme, arising over the years, is spirituality matters.  Then, only last week, I finally discovered a purposeful definition of spirituality.  I thought, Eureka!  It goes like this.

Spirituality is being grounded before God in the very place, where he chooses for me."  

Then it struck me that grounded has two meanings in English.  It can mean being rooted firmly into the earth or being punished by your parents when you are a naughty child.  I find that word association fascinating.  

This fascinates me even further as I am coming more and more to a realization that Thailand is my home.  Reality is telling me that I am no longer under the category of being an Australian living in Thailand.  Rather I am an Australian whose home is Thailand.  

This is all significant for me as it refers back to belonging, that central theme of my life.  Where do I belong?  Where is home?  My understanding of self firmly demands that I be grounded.  To be otherwise is more than just unsettling, it is frightening, as then where is home?   Home is important. Home is about being grounded.   

This reflects the struggle of life.  I have learnt that this struggle is not linear, proceeding easily to some resolution.  Rather, life is a cyclical journey, where all the same themes keep playing their tune.   Being grounded allows one to face those ever continuing tunes of life's struggles with more wisdom, deeper awareness and greater confidence to learn, grow and share.      

Happy NewYear

Thailand is the only country I have lived in where they celebrate three New Years - 1st January, Chinese and Thai.  Truth is that the last New Year is the best.  Thai New Year, or Songkran Festival, is celebrated 13 to 15 April.  It is the country's major, annual holiday time and best known as the Thai water festival with its major water fights in the streets.  It is quite incredible. The country stops to throw water at each other and they love it.  

I have a theory.  In such a disconnected world, throwing water at each other is one way of connecting.  So it could be named as Songkran - the Festival for Connecting in a Disconnected World.   Crowds of adults throng in the street to spurt water at each other with water pistols.  It is a huge social phenomenon that attracts a good share of international tourists, who come to play with water pistols in the street.  How does one explain such social behaviour?  

Is it the need to connect in some way or the need just to let go and have fun, or a bit of both, or something else?  In a tightly controlled society, like Thailand, control goes out the window for three days and people are free to let off some steam.  Or is it something deeper?  Is it the human need to be with others and simply enjoy being with them?  

My experience tells me control does not work.  The human spirit can't be dampened by outside forces, of whatever nature or source.  Having fun is good.  Add these three simple statements together and are you nearing an unstated, social contract that allows Songkran to become the mass phenomenon it has become?  If Songkran is an annual social experiment in fun, what is it saying about the people and their society?  Is this a manifestation of the human bonds necessary for social cohesion?  You have to move beyond indulging in this fun event to discover any deeper meaning or message that resonates for the remaining 362 days of the year and understanding better My Bangkok.  

Happy Thai New Year!.              

Transformation is the word

Easter fire

If it is about anything, our Easter faith is about transformation.  That is not a way or ideal we often contemplate, for we generally just go along with the everyday, doing our bit, living life as best and as joyfully as we can.  By the way, what is wrong with that?  It just is that life is about much more than just the routine.  It has a deeper meaning and purpose.  

Okay, where is this heading?  Let's get real.   

I recently attended the opening of an art exhibition, arising out of the revolution in Myanmar.  The exhibit and the whole event spoke of the warm and life-giving spirit of the people of Myanmar, who have suffered for far too long, at the hands of their own military.  As a people, they know very well the killings, the arrests, the torture, the destrucion, endured for decades, under military rule  They are an oppressed people, but with a strong spirit, knowing that life is about so much more and yearning for that for so long.   

So they rose up in solidarity to say, "No more", acting to transform their society into something better, something they deserve.  In the face of so much injustice and suffering, this is a seemingly insurmountable challenge, but one that the people have chosen to meet.  While not the chosen way, armed struggle has tragically become their reality, as they saw no other choice in a world that was failing them.   Whatever happened to human solidarity?

As I heard said by a speaker at the opening, a revolution is fuelled by heart and passion, not by weapons.  Passion is the energy for the human struggle, in which we share to transform our world and self into the image of God.  Passion is the essential ingredient in a world where relationship with the mystery, the sacred of life is at the core of human existence.  Ultimately, love and passion, not violence, win the struggle for all to enjoy the fullness of life.    

Art and culture lie at the heart of this transformation.  I saw and experienced this at the opening of this wonderful art exhibit, fuelled by the people's passion for their revolution - with its live performance of music of the revolution, quilting made up of pieces of cloth from the clothes of political prisoners, pictures of body art used as a way to protest against brute violence and oppression.  

We all need to be transformed.  I surely do.  Our world needs to be transformed - just look at Myanmar, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan +++++  Transformation may not be talked about much, but that is not to unerestimate its importance in our world and lives.  It surely does not happen easily and that is why it arises mostly out of our human suffering and chaos.  

Such is transformation!  Such is Easter!  

A message of the art exhibit

        

People have the power

 

"People have the power" is a song by Patti and Fred Sonic Smith that I accidentally and happily discovered on Facebook.  This powerful song was my introduction to the Smiths.  On hearing it, I immediately named as my song for Holy Week.  It certainly gets my award.  

In writing the song, Patti Smith says, "What we wanted to do was remind the listener of their individual power but also of the collective power of the people, how we can do anything.  That's why at the end, it goes: 'I believe everything we dream can come to pass, through our union we can turn the world around, we can turn the earth's revolution.'"  

Holy Week this year began on 24th March, the feast of Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, shot dead while offering mass.  Why?  Simply because he followed the gospel, in standing up for his oppressed people.  His waa a struggle of hope, arising from his commitment to building the Kingdom of God.   

The Easter moon is a sign to the world of this hope eternal.  We all have a reason, a purpose, a place in being here.  We make the world turn around.  The real power in life is at the grassroots with the people.  Holy Week has its focus on the sruggles of the people in life.  Easter takes it to the next level, with its focus on how our struggles are transformed to give new life to a world, so desperately overcome by so much human greed, aggression and craziness, which are part of the human narrative, but not the end of it, by any means.  Power to the people!   

   

 

Patience is a virtue

My sister is ever telling me - "Patience, Johnny".  I guess it is not one of my greatest virtues.  Well, last week I escaped to upcountry Thailand, in the northeast region, named Isan, for a bit of fresh and quiet.  It was "desert time", as I would say. 

There, as I quietly spent my short time, joining in life and watching the locals, I noticed their patience. They have lives to live and things to do, within the tough environment of rural Thailand, with its heat and varied limitations of a challenging rural existence, somewhat isolated from the lures of the big city.  In the midst of it all, its ups and downs, its dramas and traumas, they just get on with their daily routine, they're happy with their lot, they continue to ever thrive enjoying their family and love the place they call home.  I guess that is what matters in life. 

Living in a big city, being so western and critical in my approach to life, I can make life more complicated than it needs to be and become overly anxious about what should be.  There is something to be said for patience, while still keeping a watchful eye on life and its comings and goings.  .  

I needed my "desert time". not to escape reality, but to be able to appreciate it more deeply and live it more wholesomely.  I learnt from the people with whom I shared my desert.  I came to see them in a new light - as good and simple people, who work and struggle in life, loving and enjoying their family, continuing the daily chores.  I found that refreshing and life giving. The desert is a fertile place.  

 

The land is fertile

     

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Control doesn't work

We are mid-way through Lent and I hope I am learning something about life and me.  If I may be bold enough to venture an insight from my own journey into the desert this Lent, I am ever re-affirmed in a key life motif - control does not work.  Truth is there is only one person in control, and that is God, who has her own ways of keeping the show going, despite whatever we may do.  Thank God.  

Knowing who is in charge reassures me, as life then, in no way, depends on me.  Thank God, yet again.  

Last week, I participated in an international gathering of church partners, working on opposing human trafficking.  When I first walked in the room, I saw how few were there, but then I was immediately struck by their diversity and strength.  Each person represented a different country and each one was so strong.  So here was a group not to be misjudged or underestimated.  Control doesn't work.  

I have a simple encounter on the bus, on the way to work.  The conductor, a more mature woman, and I have a dispute over my fare.  I get the bus every day and I know how much I pay, which is what I paid her.  She continues the dispute, all spoken in Thai.  I am amazed at how much Thai I can speak. She eventually turns, telling me she knows who I am (after all I am a regular).  Her turning statement was how she would like to learn English and that her sister lives in Denmark.  She likes farang men and asks my name and where I live.  This is both funny and very uncomfortable.  We are friendly and that is good, but I am no longer in control, not knowing where this will go.  I am very  happy to get off the bus, while encouraging her all the way as a good and strong woman, who is smart.  

Control doesn't work, but be ever smart and friendly.  They work.  

 ; diversity and strength do.  

Hear the Cry of the Earth

Guess who?

I went to a friend's farm in Buriram last week, for a couple of quiet days, to begin Lent.  I also went with a practical task for my short time there, as I am to present on a key theme of Pope Francis' Laudato Si - "Hear the cry of the earth". I thought how can I hear that cry, when I live at the centre of My big, busy, crowded and noisy Bangkok?  So off I went on the bus, heading upcountry.  Well, what did I hear there? 

Firstly, I was struck by and enjoyed the silence.  This told me that I had to become still to hear the earth's cry.  Coming from the big city and its busyness of life, it takes time to become still and quiet so as to listen.  As I downed the pace of my life, I quickly became aware that I was not setting the conversation.  I surely knew that I had to stop and listen.  

I saw the animals on the farm.  The dogs, the ducks, the geese, the chickens - they all looked so cute.  On the surface, they got on with their business, living in harmony.  In fact, the very opposite was part of the reality as the dogs would slyly attack and kill the other, defenceless animals.  In order to keep the dogs in line and protect the other animals, they were given their own, comfortable house. 

Truth is, while life on the farm is peaceful, it can also be cruel and harsh.  Animals are territorial and fall prey to each other, with the stronger ones in the chain dealing harshly with their weaker brothers and sisters.  So there is ever an undercurrent/  

While all looks still and calm on the farm, the climate is harsh and there is a lot of work to be done.  No matter how hot it may be, there is always a list of chores waiting for one's attention.  When something goes wrong, you don't call in the workmen.  Rather you fix it yourself.  So the realities make you more aware of your dependency and interdependency, on both nature and humanity.  You know your farm and you work with it.  You know the earth and you work with it.  And you know you cannot do it alone. 

Life may seem simpler in the country, but it is not.  It involves hard work, and, to be successful, you work with the earth, not against it.  That is a skill.  You get your hands dirty.  Anything can go wrong at any moment.  The harshness of the climate and the land remind you who is in control.  Not you!

I could see how the land is there not to be tamed or conquered.  It can't be as nature is too strong.  Rather, the land is to be connected with and related with, like dealing with another person.  Show it respect and give it the dignity it deserves.    

In the big city, we make things happen, using money; we take too much for granted.  In the country, you achieve, using your own resources and knowing and respecting nature.   In the big city, there are more barriers or defence mechanisms.  In the country, it is you and the earth, together with those around you.  In the end, that is it.    

Fiery Arrow

St Brigid of Kildare (451-525CE)

1st February is the feast of St Brigid.  She was a native of Ireland, being the daughter of a Celtic chieftain.  She was named after a Celtic goddess, whose name means "fiery arrow".  I thought - Wow! Her name reflects how I picture her - a strong willed woman.  Her life story speaks of a holy woman, a strong woman, with a real zeal for the faith and helping others in need.  In doing so, she faced all sorts of opposition, even from her father, for she did not just comfortably follow the social norms of her day in reaching out to the poor and suffering.  So it would seem she was and had to be a fiery arrow.  Don't we as well, in this harsh world?  

Like St Patrick, she was a missionary, building a new church in her homeland.  Together, they are the patrons of Ireland.  Here, we see the bond of mission, bringing together two great characters in history.  It is a small world.  .  

Mission?  What is it really?  It is not rocket science.  It is simply whatever good we do in following the ways of Jesus, to build up the Kingdom of God here and now.  Even that simple explanation sounds too academic or complex.  Put it another way.  All, we do and are, is coloured by our basic life orientation to following Jesus and his Good News.  We do so out of love and passion, not compulsion or compliance.   

And so... 

We may not deal very well with opposition or difficult people, but we keep at our tasks, ever believing in what we do for the other.  

We may take conflict and life's hurts far too seriously, but we never lose our sense of perspective and joy in life. 

We may be challenged by the demands of every day commitments, but we remain true to who we are and our responsibilities.  

A fiery arrow is not stopped by the elements.  It keeps reaching for the stars.  

It takes love, not money

Chipping in to get ready for the big wedding

I just had a great weekend up north, in Mae Hong Son, a most beautiful part of Thailand, by the border with Myanmar.  I went there for the wedding of a good friend, a Karenni guy.  

On arriving there,  my friend, the groom, took me to his place to see the preparations happening for the wedding, the next day.  I was just amazed to see these young guys busily cutting up a pig for tomorrow's feast.  Then I looked across the yard to see a whole group of women cooking the dissected pigs in huge pans, over gas flames.    

The wedding, the next day, was just as amazing, or simply put, it was a breath of resh air for a Catholic priest so often imprisoned by "Wedding World", with all its over the top demands, costs and expectations.  All ever too much!  For a pleasant change, this was a "do it yourself" wedding.  I just loved it.  

There was a lot of fuss and preparation,  It was a grand celebration, but it was created by the couple, with their people, helping all the way.  Balloons decorated the church.  The bride and groom, elegantly but simply dressed, welcomed all the guests.  There was no long line of bridesmaids and groomsmen, doing nothing other than imbuing the event with fashion and beauty.  The church was a small, simple, village church, where the local community gathered.  Today, the people sung gustily and said all the prayers with firm conviction.  The church celebration was engulfed in a family atmosphere.  It set the scene for a relaxed, at home reception, enjoying home cooked pork.  Just wonderful!     

It was all about using the limited resources available to the people, to create a celebration of love.  It hit me - a strong, loving community makes a family.   

 

We are the clergy

I have just received a reminder from the local church here - 

"We are the clergy.  We are above the laity." 

I think: "Really? When did we last read Pope Francis on the scourge of clericalism in the church?" 

Then, I harken bak to last Friday, the 12th January, which was the feast day of Blessed Nicholas, a Thai priest, who has been named a martyr in the universal church.  For me, the landmark was that it was 80 years since he died a martyr in a Bangkok prison.  

80 years ago saw a different world and a different Thailand, caught up in the utter chaos of the Second World War.  At that time, the Catholic Church in Thailand knew persecution, for it was wrongly perceived as an agent of the then enemy, the French, a European, colonizing power.  

So Fr Nicholas Bunkerd  was hauled off to prison in January, 1941, having been wrongfully convicted, along with many other Catholics.  There he lasted three years, living under tough conditions, while remaining true to being a priest, through prayer and exercising ministry in teaching and charity. Having been infected with TB and being weakened by excessive blood transfusions, he died a martyr on 12th January, 1944.  

For me, his life message is two-fold. 

1)  Always be true o yourself and your calling.

2)  In the context of our Christian calling, rise up to meet the challenges of life.

Having suffered so much in prison, having ever remained the true priest and kind man, I do not believe that Blessed Nicholas would, in anyway, hold that the clergy were above the laity.  I see it in his fresh approach to life and its presenting tribulations; I see it in his good nature and ever pressing ahead in fulfilling his mission.  I never met the guy, but I look at his face and I see a kind and good hearted man, with a sense of humour.   

All I can say is that the essential and good message for life is too often lost in life's messiness and intrigues.  We too often and unnecessarily do ourselves harm.  Blessed Nicholas, pray for us. 

  

Reach for the Stars

 

Landmark 81, Saigon

My 2024 has started with a bang, with my visiting Ho Chi Minh City, known by the locals as Saigon. I went there presumably to attend a religious profession, but it turned out to be so much more.  Moving out of my comfort zone led to my experiencing many marvels, in such a short time. Life can be full of surprises.  Amazing!  

My plan was to be hosted to a tour of Saigon, organized by my good, Franciscan friend there.  What he organized went beyond all my expectations, for he put me into the hands of incredibly gifted and kind strangers who quickly became friends and companions on the journey.  

These strangers offered me generous hospitality, freely opening up to me, sharing a priceless look into life and what is possible for any of us.  I saw through them a people and a church rich in history, strong in faith and healthy in their approach to life.  They made me part of their life project,  which is both rich and nourishing.  Through them, I came upon a church and its people that energized me, refreshed me and gave me a renewed sense of purpose and direction, for what lay ahead of me, in My Bangkok. 

They showed me the sights - a vibrant city, an active church, the Presidential Palace, the cathedral, the Post Office.  I saw so much more through them. 

       

Following on from my last entry for 2023, I would now say - we enter deeper into the journey of life so that we can reach for the stars.  This is what I learnt from my three days in HCMC.