Thursday, December 2, 2010

Today



This feeling comes and goes. Now and then, it rears its head, only to be lost in the din of daily life, dissolving into forgetfulness. But I'm holding onto it for a minute more, and today, I am documenting it. To remember.

In our big meeting this morning with the "big" stakeholders, as I munched on buttery cake, I thought: All the pouring over documents, laws, and legal memos; all the drafting and re-drafting, the agonizing over one word; all the site visits to impoverished communities via bumpy bus rides, to communities where, when you sit still for a moment, a swarm of flies attacks, where the heat is unbearable, where you are fatigued so quickly; all the women crying to me with their stories, with their half-naked children in their arms; all the evidence gathering.

SOMETHING -- and I don't know the contours of that "something" yet -- has come out of this, grown from it, from my work.

Amazing.

These pictures are from my trip to Japan with Mami last year. We were in Kyoto, on a cold afternoon that was quickly turning to evening. I remember walking through the park that floated above the city, staring at the reddening trees, above and below.

Not related. But this is kind of sums up how I feel this afternoon.

4 comments:

  1. I saw the pictures, and thought to myself, "Whoa, fall in Cambodia sure does look like when I was in Kyoto . . ." Silly me! You make me proud. I hope you're proud of yourself. You've done more good than you can possibly know for sure.

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  2. ha! No, fall here is nothing like fall in Kyoto! Super proud of you.

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  3. I dream of trees like this! So beautiful!

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  4. Alexa: I know. Stunning day in Kyoto.

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