A project I’d like to start sometime is waking up in the morning and listing all the things I’m going to do that day, then at night making a second list of all the things I actually did and contrast the two lists. A short reading of the morning and evening entries would look like I’m living two parallel lives with geography being the only bridge between them. Allow me to indulge:

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SATURDAY

Morning Entry

10am – I’m awake. *yay.

11am – fire has been lit with extra sheep poop added

12am – finishing leisurely brunch while browsing discgolfer magazine

Evening Entry

9am – woken by my neighbor friend’s second cousin calling me to come outside *vague ideas of strangling someone

10am – trudging out of village in search of “Yellow Tree” so that we can strip its bark and boil it to make medicine for neighbor friend’s niece who has Hepatitis A

11am – watching an old shepherd scratch in the snow a map of where to find Yellow Tree who then decides to show us the way himself and leaves his cow in the care of a fellow neighbor

12am – getting stabbed in the hands by inch long thorns while breaking apart the freshly uncovered Yellow Tree which has turned out to be a bush. *rah.

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Always expect disc golf

It’s a cliché title, but it couldn’t be more accurate. I often find myself saying that today is “unusual like usual.” This is where flexibility comes in.

I’m not talking physical flexibility, though that also comes in quite handy when the 40^th person stuffs herself into the 17-passenger van you’re riding or when you’re chasing two sheep that escaped your host dad’s flock down a mountainside. I’ve been attending the women’s club yoga sessions for that. (Strictly for flexibility reasons, I swear.)

What we’re talking here is the ability to adapt, change, bend, and stretch out of your comfort zone so that the next time you can stretch a little bit further. There are always going to be situations that you don’t want to be in but simply have to get through with sanity attached.

Sometimes it comes loose. Sometimes you flip out and yell at the man who’s calling at you, “America! America!” Sometimes you lock yourself in your room all day eating clif bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Sometimes you come out.

But be warned. There’s just no telling how far you may have to walk for what kind of colored tree covered with who-knows how many thorns. At least it’ll be expected.