It is good to be back in Asia – after several years now.
Sitting on the balcony of our hotel, looking out on the buildings and streets of Vientiane. The coconut palms and frangipani trees, sparrows and mynahs, terracotta rooves and radio masts, the bustling traffic on the streets and a rather languid gardener in the grounds of the cultural centre opposite, with its grand gold, green and red facades.
It is nearly 30 years since I first came to Cambodia – full of dreams and expectations, perhaps with a sense of confidence and certainty, of commission and idealism. A lot has changed since then.
I have changed.
Perhaps with less certainty, more doubts. A gentler view of the world and my place in it. And with a greater sense of gratitude – and of lament.
God of Yesterday,
We knew you then:
Your promises; your words;
your walking among us.
But yesterday is gone.
And so, today, we are in need of change.
Change
and change us.
Help us see life now
not through yesterday’s stories
but through today’s.
Padraig O’Tuama, Daily Prayer with the Corymeela Community