Home Sweet Home

After 3 weeks circumnavigating the earth, we're back home. We did it in a quarter of the time Jules Verne had fictionally imagined. Hopefully with just as much experiences gained. But for all the adventures, we are happy to be back home; though curiously to an empty nest as one child out camping with his troop and the other is with her cousins in Malaysia. We've got the dogs though :)

They are all growing up, fast. J, for the past 5 years and especially the last 3 as he took up leadership of his school scout troop, has hardly anytime, even during the term breaks. M, being equally active, and in fact having just organized her first camp for her school softball teammates, is spending less time at home too. So, in a way, the last 3 weeks of being together without the kids is good training for us.

It's happening by circumstance rather than choice: this letting go, letting them fly free, and we are safe in the knowledge we have done our best to arm them with the right values to chart their own course. It's as Kahlil Gibran says... "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you". At first glance, esp to those of us that subscribe to Confuscian teachings, it seemed so counter intuitive but these words from over 2 centuries ago contain much wisdom, comprehensible only through the years.

Indeed, at work leadership needs to follow the same pattern. Beyond the care, encouragement and enablement, one's mentees have to be released to make their own decisions, even their own mistakes so they can grow more. They can always come back home, but sometimes home must know when not to take them back so they can build their own house(s).

Back in the domestic scene, though, we always have our happy house to come back to, with all it's familiar trappings. The TV is now playing some sitcom on StarWorld. So there is a background sound already streaming through the house, providing the muzak to reports from our maid on the goings-on the past weeks. In other words, normal service is resumed as we settle back home.

We've got to now get 3 weeks worth of stuff out of our bags. And we have quite a bit of unpacking to do. I should give credit where it's due. D does the unpacking, just as efficiently and amazingly as she packs. 

We left Singapore 21 days ago with two cabin trolleys and a camera bag and handbag. We landed today with three trolley bags, and 7 carry-ons. Without her skills in squeezing lots of stuff into small packages (hmm, makes sense no given her petite yet loaded capacity :), we would probably have ended up with yet another checked in bag.

It's a relief to see these well travelled bags traveling down the carousel upon arrival. Thank God SQ is excellent as usual, unlike Virgin America which we will avoid in future. One of our bags were heavy as we flew from Miami to LA and they charged us for it. They could have simply waived the overweight limit per bag, when we were clearly within the weight range overall. The difference may seem trivial but it's things like this that set great companies apart.

The really important thing though is we're home, or are in the process of coming home. We would be truly home when see the kids. Right now, we're physically here, unpacked the bags and enjoying local hawker fare once again!