Reno or Thailand?

California has been having major issues with fires for several weeks now. Although our fire season has been sizable minimal, we have all the smoke from these California fires.
The air quality is horrible, and even though it's in the high 90's there is this thick haze looming in the valley.


It's so strange to me how the smells of these fires, the color of the sunset and the haze that lingers daily, is bringing me back to my time spent in Rayong, Thailand. It's been 8 years since I was there, but the memories have been very vivid the past several weeks.
I can remember walking down a street near our home in Rayong, thinking I'm actual walking in Thailand, this is my home and am really here. The sights, sounds, tastes, the spiritual and emotional experiences were unlike any I had ever walked out.
Thailand was for a time, a short space in my life where I walked streets, meet people, song and danced, ate from street vendors, road in the back of pick-up trucks, cried tears, felt fears, and not only saw the absence of God but felt it, only to learn to press in and receive all He had for me.
When I stop to think it out it really is no different then living here...It's almost been 8 years here in Reno. Faces of strangers have now become family, streets have names that now lead me to my everyday life, tears have coated my pillow case, and the absence of God seen and felt, to His love and faithfulness carrying me when needed most.
Life is life no matter where I've called home. There will always be the desires of my heart beating with hope and life... lies of who I am, what I look like and what others think of me may always be a thorn within my flesh... questions of faith will always keep me seeking and at the end of the day I will thank God of the air I breath (even if smoke filled). And for each place I have called home, for each address has brought changed views, challenged me to trust, forced me to see truth, deal with change, except unanswered questions and learn I will never fully grasp this thing called life.