Common Denominators

When my twenty-six days in Malaysia came to an end, I flew away.

North I traveled, across the South China Sea and back to Vietnam to spend a few more days with my third-born, who lives and teaches English in Danang.

Over Saigon, rivers twisted and flowed in every direction. Their courses arced and swooped until I grew dizzy from trying to keep each one straight. But one thing was certainly clear - the rivers' common denominator was mud.

As I flew, I thought about the astonishing fact that not one but now two little countries tucked into the faraway corners of Southeast Asia feel like home to me, and their people are my friends. Certainly, our lives twist and flow in some different directions, and I often grow dizzy trying to sort out our similarities and differences. But if I have learned anything on my Asian adventures, it must be this - my faraway friends and I share a common denominator and it is most certainly love.