Visa accomplished...

I walked up to the counter and there were five people waiting in line. I had urgently needed to release the pressure on my bladder, but I thought to myself that it is worth it to sit out the five people instead of the fifteen that might be there when I came back. I did my dance then stopped thinking about it and I was finally relaxed. I sat there visualizing my turn walking up to the window, smiling and saying thank you for seeing my visa glued into my passport was what I saw. The gentleman at the window recognized me right away and smiled. He retrieved my confirmation letter from the Canadian High Commission and told me to give him my passport. I told him that the office already had my passport which he responded to with a firm, "No."

What I had envisioned moment before had none of this in it. The fellow behind me asked if I was from America. I told him politely that I was from Canada. He didn't have to tell me where he was from as the thick London accent poured through his lips and over his tongue. I explained briefly what had gone on and just then the man behind the glass in the air conditioned office whose cool air was escaping through the tiny hole informed me that he indeed had my passport. He opened it up and there is was in all it's glory, a stamp that was finally glued in place. I thanked him, smiled and was on my way.

As I was walking away admiring the handwriting on my visa I stopped admiring when I came across the word SINGLE. They had issued me a single entry visa when I had applied for a multiple entry visa. I was informed by both Pakistani and Canadian High Commissions that because I applied in Pakistan I am only given a single entry. If I needed a multiple, only my home country would have been able to accommodate me.

This throws me off kilter. Everything happens and for reasons unknown to me at times, but I'll accept it and see where it goes.

It is easy to be pleasant when life flows by like a song, but the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, and it always comes with years, and the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through the tears. -Irish saying