Six Years Later and What’s Changed?

Stop and think for a moment… where were you six years ago at this time of the year?  Did you live in the same state, city, or perhaps even the same home?  Did you work at the same office or have the same commute?  Were your children still in the house or were your grandchildren or perhaps even children not even thought of?  What has changed, and what has stayed the same?

For me, when I think about where I was and how much has changed or stayed the same, I am struck.  In some ways everything has changed and in some ways nothing has changed.  Most of you who are reading this right now I did not know six years ago.  Had we passed one another on the street we wouldn’t have thought twice about the other (well, I might have thought twice about you, but I look about as normal as they come)!  A sad thought, right?  There are advantages and disadvantages to maintaining the nomadic lifestyle as I have done these last ten years, but by far the greatest advantage is the number of strange unique people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet, to fall in love with, and to carry with me in my heart and mind wherever I go.

I’m thinking of this now because in the last couple days, my life 6-7 years ago has come flooding back into my purview.  Six years ago at this time I was packing my bags, preparing to leave, and to say ‘goodbye’ again.  I wasn’t leaving Crown College or Lithuania, or Massachusetts, Montana or even Minnesota.  No, six years ago about this time I was packing my bags to leave Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, preparing myself to say ‘goodbye’ to beloved students, Russian mothers, teammates, kiosk managers, school administrators, bazaar sellers, ex pat friends, forgotten babas at the Old Folks’ Home, neighbors, and more.  Goodbyes are never easy, but are especially difficult when you know that the chances of ever seeing those people again are slim.  One moment those people are sharing in life with you and you with them, and in the next moment they are gone, leaving you to yourself and a heart more filled with love and friendship than you ever knew possible. 

But then there are those odd chances that you might, in fact, actually see a person again, either in that context or another—and to find that your goodbye wasn’t for ‘forever’. 

As of this week, one of my Kyrgyz ‘goodbye’s’ was not forever.  First, though, let me show you a few ways in which my life six years ago was drastically different, and yet at the same time, hardly different at all…

Six years ago I tried my hand at golf.

Six years later I’m still trying my hand at golf.

Six years ago I lived in a city with very little wooden infrastructure.

Six years later I’m back living in a city (proper) for the first time, and it has very little wooden infrastructure!

Six years ago my friends were other students who meant the world to me.

Six years later my friends are still other students who mean the world to me.

Six years ago I lived in a land where children’s first words are: baaah, mutton, and wool.  Okay, not really.

Six years later I’m in a land where there are more sheep than there are children to baaah.

Six years ago I lived in a flat with a kitchen that sometimes worked (when the power was on or the water was running), but was always clean.

Six years later I’m still living with a kitchen that sometimes works, but which is clean for only about two hours a week (there’s a reason I don’t tell you much about where I’m living!).

Six years ago I was surrounded by cute kids at an International Church pastored by a Church of Scotland minister named Alistair with (what I thought then was) a crazy cool Scottish accent who now lives only an hour north of St Andrews, and whose

beautiful wife, Mary, I was able to connect with just this week!!  

Randomly one night at Pins and Needles I discovered that two of the women knitting next to me actually went to elementary and high school with Mary in Edinburgh, and why yes! they could connect me with her again!

The world truly is a very, very small place, people.

Oh, it was sweet to see Mary again.  She is the first person that I knew in Kyrgyzstan that I’ve now seen again.  The first person with whom I could share Kyrgyz memories. 

And who knew six years ago that our ‘goodbye’ would not be forever and that we would meet in such a place as this? 

God did.  That’s who. 

Isn’t it fun to see how our lives progress year after year?  I wonder what mine will look like six years from now!  Scary thought…

If you’re interested, here’s a link to some other pictures from my time in Kyrgyzstan: http://www.traveljournals.net/travelers/haley/pictures/