Moving Toward Asia

Time is passing - of course it is - and I am now counting the days before we leave our city. As of today, May 23rd, we will be gone in 38 days. 5 more days in the office. Two weeks and change before my next "retirement". x days to this, x days to
that. So that's the measurement part, the part that follows a calendar and involves counting.

The other part of it is a little more subtle. As the days pass, I feel myself moving toward Asia in my thoughts and perhaps more. The things I'm thinking about and imagining are different. The websites I visit in the evening are different, as are the books I read. I poured over the pictures brought back, knowing full well that what I'm seeing can't possibly do it justice and wondering what it will actually be like.

People are contacting us to talk about Manila and the Philippines - We had an email today from a man who lived in Manila for years. They want to get together. Someone else who is living there now but returning to Canada shortly wants to know if we want to hire his driver.

Serendipity also happens. Today I spoke to someone I do business with (we've never met in person) and when I said we were moving and to where, it turns out that she is from the Philippines and is active in the Canada Philippines Business Council. She invited me both to their next meeting and to the upcoming (June 12th) celebrations at City Hall for the Philippines National Day. According to the Philippine Government, there are some 300,000 Filipinos living in Canada.

And so it begins...

This is an often repeated quote, supposedly from Goethe, but I love it nonetheless and believe it to be totally true. So from him or W.H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951:

...the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

And the punch line, from the man himself:

'Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!'

Here's one thing I AM dreaming I can...

I intend to replace this photo with one from real life - perhaps taken in that very spot in Palawan. Stay tuned.







P.S. I wasn't sure whether this title should be "toward" or "towards" but Dr. Grammar gave me the answer in seconds.