Englewood Cliffs, NJ
If stuck to my original plan, I would right now be waking up to get ready to go to the airport to catch a plane back to San Diego, arriving back at the monastery by late afternoon. My guestroom would have been left unlocked for me, and I would soon fall back into daily monastic routine as an aspirant.

As it is, I'm not leaving until tomorrow, even earlier, and I'm not flying to San Diego. I'm flying to San Francisco, and by tomorrow evening, I'll be with my cousin again, along with one of her kids, her father and stepmom, and eventually two of her brothers at different points. Eventually I'll end up back at the monastery.

My cousin and I will have bits and pieces of time during the week to figure out and temper our roles in each others' lives, and come to a better understanding about our paths and why we've met in this lifetime (if you believe in that sort of thing).

The intensity and emotion of this past week, and prior to leaving Taiwan, would so bore anyone reading this that I won't even bother.