Happy Birth Month to Me!

This is an Unalome.  It’s a symbol familiar to any Thai person, usually associated with Buddhism. I don’t ascribe to any form of organized religion, Buddhism or otherwise, but what I find interesting about this symbol is the fact that what it represents could be interpreted as rather atheistic.  It’s not some sort of mystical incantation that promises protection, guidance, or good fortune. It’s simply an abstract representation of the course of a human life. The dots at the bottom represent the consciousness (or the soul, if you prefer) coming into being. The center of the spiral marks the moment of birth and the beginning of the madness of existence that proceeds to toss us around like rag dolls in all manner of indiscriminate directions. Nothing makes sense. We’re never really sure if we’re moving forward or backward. All we can do is hang on… until we manage, through our gained wisdom and experience, to find that “thing” we’ve been searching for, and the chaos gives way to an inner confidence and peace. Buddhists would call this Nirvana, or Enlightenment. I think it’s anything (a person, a place, a profession) that gives you enough of a sense of belonging and purpose to calm the storms swirling around you. Finally, the dots at the top of the unalome represent the end of our journey, as we fade away back into the same nothingness from whence we came. It’s a simple and beautiful reminder that this existence, chaotic and stressful and confusing though it may be at times, IS the main event. It’s precious and it’s fleeting and it’s all we have, so we should dive in and make the most out of every single second we’re given, even if we’ve not yet found what it is we’re looking for.  

December is my birth month, and traditionally one of my least favorite months of the year. Not only is there the annoyance of having to (nearly) share a birthday with Jesus (who is a real buzzkill closing all the bars and keeping people home with their families when I wanna go out and get my birthday drink on), but the holidays are also not exactly the most singles-friendly time of year, which is a category I find myself in more often than not. As such, my typical December survival strategy is to keep my head down and wait for it to all blow over... but not this year. This year I decided to take back my birth month (that’s right, Jesus, I’m claiming the whole month. Suck on that!) and to kick it off I bought myself a little present, to commemorate Thailand as an official part of my story.

Because sometimes it's good to have a reminder that life is short, and if we spend all our time waiting out the storms, we’ll never know how much fun it could have been to play in the rain.