This is a continuation of the previous post and serves as a continued analysis of my time living in Thailand thus far:
Life is far easier when I am adaptable. This is particularly pertinent when living in a foreign country. To be clear, I love my life here. The last three months have been, daresay, some of the most enjoyable times in my life. Regardless of this enjoyment, life here is drastically different in nearly every way possible from my life in the States. Yet, I am overwhelmingly content.
Frankly, I think living here has taught me more about myself (pardon the cliche) than most of my adult life combined. I have shed everything peripheral; people, places, things, food, culture, and schedules that I clung to out of habit. I am left with only me. Nothing else is certain.
In the past, living in the States, I would say that I was ‘adaptable’....For example, so what if my favorite restaurant in WNC ran out of my beloved Grilled Salmon Salad, I could handle the Portabello Burger instead. In retrospect that sort of ‘adaptability’ seems like a joke. I cringe just thinking about what a creature of habit and comfort I was. Now I have a choice: Stick to my old ways and be unhappy or let go of expectation, habit and any sense of control to enjoy my life. I’ve chosen the latter mostly because I really, really dig being happy and was fortunate enough to recognize that adaptability was the only means to achieve it here. Adapt or die. (This also happens to be Darwinian dogma, go figure.)
So, here I am, living a life which is fairly uncertain. Not in a bad way, in an incredibly liberating day-to-day, hour-to-hour sort of way. I do know a few things which form a semblance of scaffolding for my life plan:
I am embracing this time. I don’t care that I don’t know what I will be having for breakfast in the morning, what my plans are for tomorrow evening, or what my plans are for day x,y,z. I am deliciously unencumbered by habit and, for the time being, it is a joyous time. I am working when I want (which happens to be alot), playing when I feel like it, and tackling my life as it is served. I try to keep a schedule of work but if it changes I don’t freak, I just flow. I don’t plan meals. I don’t form expectations. I don’t look at the clock if I can get away with it. I do some planning of retreats and such but recognize that what I am doing is purely speculative and, if it changes, I embrace whatever happens instead.
I think that the only way I could have accomplished this, a 180 degree rotation from my Type A, over-scheduled, control-freak former self, is that I am in such a drastically different environment. I am certainly not saying that this style of living is the only way to approach life or, for that matter, a standard I am setting for anyone else or my future. It just happens to be working for me right now. I am happy, relaxed and shockingly productive. I recognize that I am beyond blessed by my circumstances and the people whom I am surrounded by. I have it made.
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