... To our former life in Northern Asia and where we head from here?  We’ll explain more in the coming months.  For now we are settled in Portland (“Keep it Weird”) Oregon and considering our next step.  Meanwhile, the work in Northern Asia goes on – and goes on well.  Some plant, some water… 

It certainly was not by design, at least not ours anyway, this move.  Life is like that.  You're driving down the road at 55, ok 65, and all of a sudden you find yourself in the hospital or home in bed or in another movie.  Just when you least expect it. 

This past summer, we made a trip back to Xi'an, our beloved home for the twelve years prior to our returning to the States in the spring of 2007.  It was a bittersweet time to reconnect with old friends and see how people and projects continue to grow and develop and to say goodbye.  The Chinese don't say "goodbye" meaning "never see you again" kind of thing.  They say Zhai Jien, which means "See you again."  So we didn't say goodbye, we said "see you again" and we meant it.

For now we are on a leave of absence, a time of rest and recuperation and reflection (still got the speaker's alliteration in me) -- basically catching our collective breaths from somehow having had the wind knocked out of us.  We're putting a lot of energy into writing, hoping to continue to help the work for years to come. 

Beyond that, we're taking it all one day at a time.