Spiritual Health Recipe

The dining room of our rental home.  Also note the small un-updated kitchen behind it.  

So we are settling.  I feel normal, sort of.  Our kids are starting to have a schedule.  We have places to be and people to see and life is feeling normal.  I am almost adjusting to the expenses of EVERYTHING, but really I cannot complain.  Arlington is gorgeous, the weather is perfect, our new neighbors are very friendly, and we are really having a good time.

The stairs and the door to the kitchen.

There is part of me that is having a hard time.  The thing is this: I lived in this country where there was a lot of really crappy things, corruption, poverty, health problems, and disrupted family lives.  Without seeking it out I saw a lot of really sad things.  And here I am in Arlington, Virginia.  Arlington where I swear Masters degrees and JDs are the new high school diploma.  Arlington, Virginia where for $750,000 in a recession you can have the privilege to buy an un-updated home that is 1 bathroom and three bedrooms.

One side of our living room..  

The other side of the living room (not my art)

There is such a drastic, stark difference between Manila and Arlington.  I find myself with my kids at the yuppie tax payer supported public parks (which are nice) and the other moms (and nannies).  The moms here are not gussied up.  They wear yoga pants, sweats, and their Harvard Business School sweatshirt.  They are smart but they have decided to put it all on hold to raise their children, and they plan on raising them well.  So they put all of these type A traits that made them successful pre-children, into their kids.  They manage everything about their kids: their play dates, their wardrobe, the games they play, where they go, and making sure they have every opportunity.  And I get it because to a degree I am the same way.  However, the obsession over every minute detail of their child's life and diet is exhausting.  I understand wanting to provide a balanced and nutritious diet, but the obsession over gluten non gluten, soy, dairy, organic, dye free, high fructose corn syrup free, sugar free it is a lot to take in.  It is a lot of work and frankly after living with people who lived off of essential one rice and sauce meal a day, it is hard for me to swallow (pun intended).  It makes me wonder if perhaps as a society if we spent merely a fraction of our self-absorbed worries and put it towards others we might just find ourselves spiritually healthier, which I think in the long run will go farther than the food trend of the day.

The saddest part about all of these feelings is the reality that no one wants to hear about it.  People don't want to hear about it and I find myself drawn to other foreign service friends who have dealt with the same experience.  Not that I had anything traumatic or awful happen in my time in the Philippines but I have lived abroad, seen and dealt with a lot of crap and now I am back in the antithesis of Manila and the problems here are of a very different nature.  Problems that I wish Manila could trade for, because you know when your biggest dilemma at the grocery store is which aisle of cheese should I peruse first, things are good.

The question I now have to face as I think about this is how, as a parent, can I teach my children to have that sensitivity to the broader perspective?  I pray that I can because it is the only way it makes the moves and uprooting worth it.  Their educations abroad may end up being top notch but the true value of this experience comes from gaining a broader perspective of the people of the world.