A Tube of Toothpaste

I stocked up on toothpaste in Thailand nearly a year ago.
Good toothpaste is hard to come by in parts of southeast Asia, but I managed a couple of tubes of what I firmly believe to be Colgate original flavor.
I can't read Thai, but I feel confident this is the same product.

This afternoon, as I spied the floor of my new "home", I noticed my Thai toothpaste scattered between a half-unpacked suitcase and a National Geographic entitled "Africa, Whatever You Thought, Think Again".
I smiled.
It couldn't have been a more accurate representation of my present life.

I've recently returned to Nashville, TN, home of country music, Pancake Pantry and Radnor Lake. But more importantly, home to me.
I've come home to pursue my passion and as of yet, no one has faulted me for that.
It sounds noble, to follow one's dreams, but it feels largely irresponsible.

My dream is of writing.
My interest is the world.

I suppose I should narrow my scope a bit, but I am in no real hurry to do so.
I am at a time when April feels like long-term planning and limiting myself to a "Top 5" list of "countries-to-visit" is challenging at best.

Fresh from Washington I am grasping to hold on to a more global perspective.
I recently attended a press meeting with a blogger from South Dakota.
Apparently, the entire state's population is about 750,000, less than the one million in the city of Nashville, less than the one million who died in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
It's hard to know just how all these facts fit together and even harder to know how my daily life must change because of them.
My heart and mind are spinning like a top, trying to keep the balance of near and far.
I struggle to know just how to walk in the midst of it.

And so I find myself here again, living in the questions and sharing some of them with you.
Many of you have asked to know "the stuff you don't put in the email".
Tonight, I'd wager a guess they are one in the same.