Berkeley Thai Temple Weekend Market...

I cant recall how many months if not years of time ive spent in this small temple complex, hidden away behind the Ashby BART station in south Berkeley.  I also cannot recall the many tons and tons of food and drink i have consumed over the years either.  Each morsel and sip all seem to blend into a montage of hunger, desire, and then nappy time hahahahaa!

There was a time in the past when i became a monk (i will save that for another time ^^).  Before going to the monestary, i studied here for a summer, learning prayers, studying texts and teachings.  Practicing conduct and etiquette becoming of a "man of the cloth."  Orange cloth anyways hahaha.

Srry there were no pictures of the insides of the temple, but we are really on a mission to feed Kelly after all ^^.

  The line for food runs all the way into the street from the counter, past the central dining area and through the alleyway between the two main buildings.  I hopped on over to the exchange counter for tokens, and Kelly hops into the line.  I would argue that her task is the more important one haha.  As i am making my way back, the girl in front of us in the line says, "Oh my god.  Big?  Is that you?"  So, now, a little background to our "chance" meeting with an old aquaintance:

January 2006:  Sarah is on a bus in downtown Bangkok, Thailand.  She sees Dylan walking down the opposite side of the street, and decides that it could not possibly be him, since it would have to be a complete coincidence to see a good friend randomly walking down the same crowded and humid street in a third world country.

  She phones a friend back in the states, and comfirms that it IS Dylan, and that he IS in bangkok, staying with my brother Bay.  I happen to be there too, visiting my brother on the last leg of my trip to Japan, before heading home.  Strange...

Two weeks earlier, Aug 30:  Sarah goes to the Berkeley Thai temple for the first time, to check out the weekend market, and runs into Bay, my brother, who has been in California for only 4 days...he is visiting from New York where he has been for 3 years.  Merry meetings ensues.  Not so strange...

Today, Sept 13:  Sarah just happens to be at the Berkeley Thai temple for the second time, for the same reason: breakfast.  She happens to be standing directly in front of me where i had left Kelly in the line.

  She happened to recognize me (score!! hahaha).  Merry meetings ensues.

When the world simply becomes your playground, your backyard, it gets smaller and smaller every year.  One can simply pass the series of coincidents off as meerly chance, or random freaky probability.  Or one can see them all as a series of oppertunities, as invitations, as small blessings.  Today the rich desire for food drew everything and everyone together.  The vortex is once again whole, complete.  And then, bang, it scatters again.  Oh well...we'll just have to eat here again ^^.