New Title - New trip : 2007

I really struggled with how to start my blog about our latest journey. Should I start a new blog entirely or add to the existing one? Was this trip really a race like last year's? After all how could we top last year's trip which was both exhausting and exhilarating as well as crazy since we took so many risks literally traveling on "a wing and a prayer?" As I realized our trip was coming to a close the other day, on a very long long-tailed boat ride I pondered what to do and found my thoughts literally going in circles as all of the happenings of our journey started to interweave themselves like the beautiful silk fabric that the Thais are famous for. Having spent so much time in a predominantly Buddhist country it is hard not to feel some influence at least subconsciously. Circles are everywhere, like the globe, like life. Circles come to a close and yet they begin again unbroken. Much like old friendships and family bonds. We come apart and back together again - sometimes it seems that we pick up where we left off and yet we start a new chapter as we have been changed by the last chapter all the while reweaving and relooping our circles as the world becomes a smaller place. Our trip this year was a race to reconnect our lives and create new memories. Perhaps that's what all real vacations are about and most of us never take the time to realize or do that until it becomes a necessity. We raced here to spend some precious time renewing the bonds of a new/old friendship that I hope lasts a lifetime. As a family we circled almost the entire world in a race to be together again for just a brief moment in time - Rob flew East from Saudi Arabia, the kids and I flew West from California - the miles more than I want to calculate because it's too painful to think about what it takes for our family to be together right now. So, on the last day of my journey I have decided that I will change the title of my blog to Our Amazing Races and thus continue where I left off as though I never left off at all. It gives me a new perspective, some hope for the big picture that is our lives so that I can see past these awful interruptions caused by unavoidable separations and uncontrollable changes. They are just another chapter in our book, our adventures continue as they always have creating some sort of pattern of normalcy for us. Once a year we re-emerge with our heads above water to rejuvenate and regenerate before diving back into our "real lives" which we manage to trudge through one day, one minute at a time, all the while knowing that miles cannot keep us apart forever. We come apart but we always come back together again, just like the circles...