Stranger Things (at a Thai Market and Everywhere Else)

We made a quick stop at the Thursday morning market today.  Our ultimate destination was Pao Pao, a large discount store I've previously compared to Dollarama on steroids.   But first, I needed a blouse to go with a Thai skirt I had received as a gift.  

Honestly, I don't need any more Thai tops or clothes at all.  Except, in my determination to only bring one checked bag this time, I find I have left behind some key components of my summer wardrobe.  This has limited my desire to look 'presentable' on a Sunday morning.  Fortunately, I was able to find what I was looking for quite quickly.

I'm pleased with the find.  Even had fun joking a little with the vendor, a local lady with an easy laugh.  Besides the simple fun of sharing a humorous moment, I always find it reassuring when strangers understand me.

This was not the stranger things part, though. 

How would you fancy buying chunks of fish from an open cart on a hot day, with the intact head keeping watch?  

Or maybe whole, seasoned roasted frogs, internal organs and intestines included and on display to entice you to buy one and take it home for lunch?

Too much?  Okay, sorry.  I'll post more normal pictures.

Some wild honey combs!  That looks amazing.  But, wait.  What's that simmering in the pot?

Bee larva, which are considered a bonus treat.

Okay, I'll stop.

And actually, I haven't taken pictures at the Thursday morning market in a long time.  Because I'm actually used to seeing these things now.  I can walk past barely noticing, until I think it might make a good blog post or something.  

I always ask permission when I do stop for a picture.  "I'm from Canada," I explain.  "In Canada we don't have this."  [Unless...if anyone's ever seen this sort of thing at the St. Jacob's Market, I'd like to hear about it.]

The thing is, today, any time I identified myself as being from Canada, I couldn't help but think how very glad I am for that.  The news being what it is right now, Canada has a 'thing' going on.  We have a 'thing' that I am a much a part of here as if I was there.  In fact, being so far away has had a magnifying effect for me.  I am feeling the global-ness of all that's going on in a way I might not if I was all tucked into my Canadian life, not seeing fish and frogs and bee larva at the market.

Canada doesn't have stranger things (to me) at the market.  But stranger things are certainly happening for us all in my home and native land.  Next time I go grocery shopping, will I feel like what I'm used to?  Not sure.  Will the rest of the year hold strange and unusual challenges?  Yup, I'm thinking pretty much it will.  

But I am confident, as I feel the morning sun becoming warmer on the market street, that all these things - my time here, the challenges of caring for our kids here, the world of weirdness we're watching unfold before our eyes - are not being wasted in terms of advancing the ultimate and lasting peace God's moving us all toward in the end.  

And in the spirit of Micah 4:4, and everyone having their own fig tree and vine to sit under, and no one being afraid, I'll include one last picture.  Of flowers.  

Because, they're right outside my door.  And that seems to mean something for me right now.