I finished a month of Muay Thai training on Wednesday. Two to three hours a day, six days a week for four weeks. Now I'm not quite sure what to do.
I was thinking about doing another month before I looked at my bank account. Then I was thinking about doing a week or two more, purely because I like this new healthy lifestyle and the boxing community is more of a family than a training regime. Plus I adore Pai. I fall in love with Pai every day, with all of its funny quirks and good energy. I also have my vintage clothing store that I am settling down with nicely, so when the thought to leaving Pai and Thailand entered my mind, I was completely unprepared.
Confused, I asked my friends, family, absolute strangers and my dog Crystal what I should do, and all of them responded with some version of "Follow Your Heart." So I asked my heart what to do. At that particular moment my heart was napping, so it took quite a few days to get a response. When I did it was loud and clear, and this is what it said:
"Rachel, you have done what you said you would do, and that is an accomplishment. You completed an entire month of Muay Thai, and that is an accomplishment. You know Pai and you have many friends who will be sad to see you go, which is an accomplishment. If your biggest problem in life is whether to stay in Pai or go traveling in Laos, I'd say you have a pretty good life. It is now time to move on, and when you are ready the next adventure will find you."
Turns out my heart was right.
Accomplishment is a many splendored thing, and I was floating on a cloud my last day of training. It was such a high, such a rush to follow through and complete something I told myself I was going to complete, even if I doubted myself most of the way. And I miss it. Two days of freedom and all I do is get up early and want to go back to Ay kicking me and laughing, but pushing me to be just a little bit better, knowing that I could do it. I will miss Bee yelling at me about my left side-kick technique which is never right. I will miss Tong flirting with me, Egg teaching me phrases in Thai I should never use in public, and Tree singing while preening his chickens for the next cock-fight. I will miss all the guys and girls I train with, always joking around and laughing but so supportive of each other when needed. I will miss waking up and walking through Pai early, when the mist hasn't quite yet risen and the absolute beauty of the morning surrounds and swallows me in the greens of the mountains and the golds of the monk's robes as they collect their morning alms. As I write this, I fall in love with Pai all over again. As I write this, I smile knowing I have an excellent path ahead of me, albeit unknown. As I write this, I know I am ready.
It's a night bus and a two day boat trip down the Mekong River into Laos, landing in Luang Prabang. After exploring Laos I'll head up into northern Vietnam, travel down the coast and cross into Cambodia. If time, money and visas allow, I'd also really like to get to Myanmar. So much is uncertain, but that is simply a part of life.
"You cannot escape from your heart, so you might as well listen to what it has to say."
-Paolo Coelho, "The Alchemist"
******I have finally got up more travel pictures!!! Check them out here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20085426@N05/sets/:
No comments:
Post a Comment