Here is Where We Are

Well, today is the day that Kirsten and I were supposed to go to China.

By now, we should have been safe and snug in Em and Steve's apartment, enjoying the comforts of a nice bed and the promise of Seinfeld in the morning.

Instead, we're in a hotel in Kathmandu still, with the sounds of Nepali music blasting from the bar just down the street. Long story short, our flight got canceled, and we have to wait until tomorrow morning to leave Kathmandu.

But the awesome thing is that while we're technically in Kathmandu still, it's more like we're in an alternate reality. Because THIS Kathmandu is completely different from the Kathmandu we've been staying in these past four weeks! And while we may not be in China in Em and Steve's apartment, we had a HUGE Chinese feast and the room we're staying in is the same exact number as their apartment.  So our night is actually looking a lot like it would if we had made it to China, but we're just not locationally there.

At one point during dinner, Kirsten and I both realized that we had completely forgotten about the crazy day we had and how we had gotten there, to that very dinner table. And let me tell you, it was a VERY crazy day, and forgetting about it was a huge blessing. But we HAD forgotten about it, and we sat there realizing that we could honestly have been anywhere in the world at that moment. So we declared that "here is where we are!" And since the food and the company were both great, it didn't really matter what the specifics were.

But this got me thinking, what if we lived our whole lives that way? What if we could simply enjoy the exact moment for what it was worth, and not judge it based on how we had gotten there? If Kirsten and I had been sitting there, eating our dinner but dwelling on all the things that had gone wrong, we probably wouldn't have been able to enjoy it very much.

Now as I (hopefully) leave Nepal, I hope to spend a lot of time reflecting on the events that have happened here. But one thing I really hope is that I won't try to evaluate it, or compare it too much to other experiences or even the life I'll be living when I get home. Because there's no point to it, here is where I am, and although many things have brought me to that place (wherever it may be), I need to learn to appreciate it in the moment, and not put so much emphasis on a). how I got there and b). where I'm going next.

There's my two cents for the evening, hopefully the next time I blog it will be from China!