(A Postcard in) All Seasons

A postcard, I did not expect, from a remote memory


I didn't get a chance to have a real family,
I didn't get a chance to make close friends.


As I was constantly moving, relocating all my life, way back since a toddler. 
Not to mention any kinds of relationships take a bunch of time and immense efforts with subtle fate/chances provided. 
I had grown up feeling comfortable with detachment.



A greeting card, I did not expect, from a remote memory

Poshly furnished in the privilege cabin with fancy real gold sink fitted in the lavatories of this jet airplane bounding for oil-rich Middle East;
Stenching long-haul bus with llamas and livestock crammed in its cargo compartment crazily running northward on Pan-American highway.
Alone.

Lodging at 5, 6, and 7 star hotels with other well-indulged rich-and-famous;
Overnighting in a rental car stranded by gloomy weather in South Holland.
Alone.

Flying off for assignments of Louvre and British museums seven times within a year period;
Climbing sodden up the water tower to check things out in the typhoon rampaged nights.
Alone.

Wiggling deep in coral reefs with swarming tropical fish, with heavy air tank on my back, in a world class dive site of Visayan the day before Tsunami 2004;
Fell off and got smashed in the face by a surfboard getting swollen (for 4 months back in LA) and drowned in the world top surf site in Costa Rica in 1998.
(As I still have many phobias and can't swim at all) Alone.

Toasted 4-wheel-drive safari to Sahara named The Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter Dessert) whole week long from U. A. E., Oman to Yemen;
Terrified at could not shake loose the tailing numerous lightening strikes for days in my Mustang near the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
Alone.

Sleeping off the fatigues and sickness;
Gnawing at the hardships and failures.
Alone.

Amazed at world wonders of nature, enjoyed flying by the pants of seat of doing and learning so many exotic things;
Freaked my pants off for a handful of air incidents and facing the thousand years' mummies at point blank in Nazca.
Alone.

Dining high at a royal wedding unsure what to choose from first;
Facing the food racks debating what to have for dinner or simply skip it.
Alone.

Sitting on top of a sacred Mayan temple at 5 AM waiting to see the first sunlight in Tikal ruin cities;
Boating between unmanned islets of Koh Pha Ngan & Koh Tao,... in the Surat Thani Archipelagos.
Alone.

Granted a ringside seat at jam-packed fashion shows;
Staring at the rotating carrousel at an empty terminal.
Alone.

A postcard, I did not expect, from a remote memory