สวัสดีวันปีใหม่ - Happy New Year 2552!

Alas and alack! Thai New Year is back again.

Life has been so busy for the last 8 weeks that the arrival of Songkran this year was a rude shock.

In the last couple of months I have

Finished the school year

Written and defended my research proposal (the preface and first three chapters of my thesis)

Written a last minute paper to present at the conference

Completed the long awaited 2nd International Conference of the Buddhist Economic Research Platform

Either thrown away, shipped, packed for storage or packed to go home, all of my earthly possessions

It has been too busy - WAY too busy! And it came to an end way too abruptly. The conference ended dramatically on Saturday when we started the day with a huge storm and breakfast at the Asoke community on campus. The vans and buses got stuck in the mud - I had walked from my apartment in the rain and landed up doing most of it bare footed in the mud. Obviously, there was no tour of the community. When we got to the lecture hall, the power was out so we proceeded and gathered close (to be able to hear) to the windows (for light) and had presentations without powerpoints. Not much later, it was announced that the Prime Minister had declared a State of Emergency but we had little information beyond that. Having had the December conference postponed because of another State of Emergency, it was a nightmare for me. Foreigners, a State of Emergency, the Songkran holiday and lack of transportation...arggghhh...

We did manage to get people on planes, trains, buses and cars and get them safely headed home. Then Monday was the beginning of the 3 day official Songkran holiday. And there was a storm that put out the power. With no one working there was no internet at the University so no work for me! Plus there were no songtows (truck buses) on campus so no going anywhere. Then there was the extension of the official holiday thru April 19th.... oh my. I managed to flag down an errant songtow this morning to get out since I also had no more money on my phone and no more food in the house - literally!

It is not good to go from 250 mph to 0 instantly but that has been my experience this week. Forced "do nothing".

I will leave Ubon on Friday next week to spend a few days in Bangkok before I fly out of Bangkok on the 29th: my birthday breakfast in Bangkok and my birthday dinner in San Francisco.

IF the State of Emergency doesn't get worse. This is Thailand.

Last comment added: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:28:45 PDT

Comment 1 on สวัสดีวันปีใหม่ - Happy New Year 2552!

Commiserations, Linda, on "doing nothing" - but congratulations on all the many big somethings that you've managed to do while in Thailand!

Comment 2 on สวัสดีวันปีใหม่ - Happy New Year 2552!

There's something very Buddhist about all of this. It strange how gifts are--what it is we're given isn't always clear. And compassion isn't always experienced as the projection of love either, sometimes it's very hard. In the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" George makes his daughter cry and snaps at everyone. Knowing he's hurting the very ones he loves most only increases his despair. LOL well that's off topic, I guess my point is that in the movie what George learns is that compassion isn't always directed outward towards others, indeed a gentleness in our hearts for our very being is where compassion begins. Be well and happy.