Happy

.......just because these photos of our foster pups make me happy. (Photography by Max)

I am a triangle

http://naomihattaway.com/2013/09/i-am-a-triangle-and-other-thoughts-on-repatriation/

For any expats or repats, my friend Mysti made me aware of this great blog post. Her family are ex Air Force and spent lots of time living in Germany before returning to the U.S with their 4 kids. It is interesting to me to hear that regardless of where your ancestral home is, repatriation seems like a pretty similar experience for everyone I think anyone who has ever lived in another country can relate....neither a circle nor a square. Sometimes we triangles and stars feel like misfits in the square and circle worlds. Once you become a triangle you will never be a square or circle again. Being a part of both but not really belonging to either. It can be challenging. But maybe instead of seeing ourselves as misfits we should view ourselves as multi fits. Lets face it, the world is getting smaller, globalization makes us more a part of a global community than ever before. So maybe being a triangle or a star is a not such a bad thing.

Feeling Zen

Apologies to any Buddhists out there if I have misused their ox herding diagram. I stumbled across it yesterday and was fascinated by it. It signifies a Zen Buddhists journey towards enlightenment and wisdom. Deep, I know. But it struck me how similar it is to our own search for something. When we are young we work hard in pursuit of career, money or things, but as we get older that seems less and less fulfilling. It seems with every passing year I am more and more dissatisfied with our consumerist society, and the way I allow myself to get sucked into it. Yes...I am responsible for my own part in it. My annual feeling of dissatisfaction usually lines up pretty well with the end of summer. We have had some lovely Fall weather but that does not distract me from the inevitable march of winter. So as I envision the next few months hunkered down in my house I start looking around and realizing we have way more than we need. Time to start my annual purge of ....stuff. Maybe this time I will be able to resist giving in to the reverse pressure in Spring of nesting and gathering more junk in my house. Maybe.