A Legacy for our Children

I have begun the process of saying
  'good-bye' to my Vietnamese friends.

It is sad, as I have no idea where life will lead next,
  nor whether it will bring me back to this place.
  So, I am mindful that when I say, 'farewell',
  it may be for the last time.

And, that makes the moment ever more
  sacred.

I am a foreigner in this land.
  My pale skin and white hair
  demarcate me as an 'other'.

The culture, spirituality, history and politics
  so vastly differ from my own
  that at times, I find myself totally lost and confused.

I do not know Vietnamese,
  having found it a very difficult
  language to learn.

Yet, placing me, a foreigner,
  in this place has created a strange and wonderful juxtaposition
  of distinctiveness and likeness.

It's almost as if the two halves of the brain
  have been rejoined,
  east and west,
  both incomplete without the other.

And even as I struggle to understand
  some things which perhaps will forever
  elude me,
  I recognize the human face of Viet Nam
  and I see the fear, love, compassion,
  struggles, concerns, ideas and dreams
  that bind all humanity as one.

How is it that we can, at once,
  be so dissimilar and so alike?

How is that, across the vast barriers
  of language and culture and history and politics,
  we can understand each other?

Yet, it happens.
  I am blessed to witness it here
  in my own life.

And, it gives me hope for tomorrow
  and for us all.

The forest is rich because it hosts
  vast diversity in a shared eco-system.

We, too, become rich as we learn to
  celebrate that vast diversity that is
  humanity.

Now, that is a legacy to leave our children!