And so the wind blows.

I now know that life is back to normal because I am up to my usual shenanigans in the middle of the night after having slept a couple of hours. My usual joy for life could not keep me in bed and I had to sit behind the computer with a cup of coffee to indulge in all my regular activities like I always do when the people on the most Western hemisphere are active. Now that I have been in Houston, I have come to appreciate them so much more. I look at them with a whole  new fresh set of eyes.

I suddenly have become more cosmopolitan myself and I guess it was about time because, although I am Dutch and well informed, it was good to step outside my little sphere of influence and be exposed to another kind of lifestyle and point of view. It certainly loosened up my mind and made me much more relaxed and brought me back here with a whole new attitude. Believe me when I say that I needed that. There is nothing worse than being embedded in your own little world, viewing life from just one angle. 

I would like to be exposed to other, more international  points of view more regularly because I think it is enriching but I do not know a way to do this yet. There are lots of international students in town but they move in the kind of circles I do not move in. The best thing is to go to another country and be submerged in that culture and I can only hope that with a lot of luck something like that will come about in my life. I have found out that I am a good traveler so that is  good reason to do it. 

I have unpacked my suitcase and, because I am basically an organized person, it was a job quickly done and now the suitcase stands empty in its regular spot in my bedroom ready to be packed again at a moment's notice.  Some of my short jackets came out a bit wrinkly but I have hung them up on hangers and hope that this will take care of the worst of it. I do not have enough summer clothes yet so wherever I would go next would have to be a temperate zone until I have taken care of this. Do you see how I assume there will be a trip in my future soon? Optimist that I am. I have a lot of patience.

If you are open to other kinds of experiences, it very often happens that fate will bring them on your path and I will not force the issue too much and wait and see what will happen with a little help from my part. This past year all sorts of things have come about without me directly influencing them but by only being flexible enough to deal with them as they happened. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns and all you have to do is enable it for it to take place and not be unmovably stuck in a corner some place. 

I now realize that it is not enough to identify myself with only being a Europeasn but that I have to think in a larger scope than that and think of myself as a world citizen. At least one of the Western and developing kind and that does include a lot of people. It will encompass more as I get more enlightened. Growth is a step by step process.