Deep Thoughts.....

For the most part of the past 5 years, I have had the opportunity, through volleyball to travel to all corners of the globe. Other than brief stops in various cities in Asia and Europe where I have played beach volleyball tournaments, I have had the unique opportunity to actually live in Austria, Spain, Brazil and Indonesia either training or playing professionally for club teams. Although it isn’t exactly “rough” being a professional athlete, and other than the time spent on the court or in the gym, we do find ourselves well out of our comfort zones for the most part. But for me, this is the most challenging and exciting part of it all. The ability to experience entirely new cultures and ways of life has allowed me to become an extremely adaptable human being and I find that I am now at the stage where I have a constant hunger to see and experience more. I wake up each morning as it is wondering what sort of things are possible, but these constant changing surroundings provide an ever challenging way of keeping me fresh and on my toes.
After calling all these temporary places ‘homes’, the one thing that I take with me from each of them is the language (of course there is always a need to practice in order to maintain what one has learned). Being able to communicate with people in their own society is necessary to really enjoy a country and its people. After 10 days here, I am picking up key words and working on expanding my knowledge beyond volleyball jargon and the first page of my hotel menu.
The other day someone told me that I was “a rich Canadian”. There were several thoughts that continued to run through my head for the rest of that day and even a few days past. How do you define rich? I agree when it comes to the material wealth we Canadians possess. But as I look around and witness the Indonesian people surviving in this country I also notice a richness in them that most Canadians never have and/or never will experience. To me poverty is more than the cash one doesn’t have in their pocket. I see it everywhere at home with high rates of depression and mental illness, obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, cancer and other diseases. I haven’t witnessed any of these so far in this country. We may see these people as being poor, but I see richness in their hearts. There are smiles on their faces and they breathe life into everything they do, whether that be pedaling a kabuki cab, selling newspapers in the middle of highway traffic or tending a smelly durian stand on the street corner. I feel blessed for my life and the way I am able to live it. Many people are unable to leave even their own hometowns for entire lifetimes and don’t have the opportunity to understand the human race as it is.......we are all one and the same despite what we do, where we are or what we have.