Leaving Croatia

Tomorrow morning we will take a beastly early flight in the morning to Amsterdam, officially ending my sojourn in the Balkans. I am sad to leave this area of the world, but it looks like I will be able to come back soon for a conference in Sarajevo in July. I am ridiculously happy about this, and next time I will pack less and plan to see more of the areas I loved (and some of the places I wanted to visit but did not have time om this trip).

Toshi asked me tonight how I feel I have changed on this trip, and it was a hard question to answer, because I have changed in ways for which I have no words. A lot of this journey has been ablout letting go of my need or desire to control things or have things exactly my way. Burker King is wrong: you can't have it your way! and this is actually a good thing, because we can't really control much of anything and we might as well be happy doing what we can to enjoy this precious life that we have here on Earth.

Here are the most meaningful moments from this trip: Wandering in the Sarajevo market as veiled women smile at me, standing on the reconstructed Old Bridge of Mostar with 6 new Turkish friends, delighting in the marvels of the farmer's markets in Bosnian and Croatian towns, and conversing with the locals in the best broken Croatian or Bosnian I can muster while they summon the Engligh words they learned in school or from TV to come to a kind of common understanding. This is the real fruit of life and the reason for living. To find oneself in that human connection and to realize how similar we are, despite our divergent history and the fact that we live our lives a half a world apart. It is a miracle that we can meet in the middle and find ourselves and each other there. .