Home

11 days away from home. I lost my routine. I lost my sense of belonging. I didn't feel I was home. I felt like a tourist. I looked at my home with new eyes, as if it was all new and unfamiliar. It took me a day to recover, to remember what I've anchored myself to, to what I call home.

Then again, maybe I've attached myself too much to the routines of this earth. This temporary sense of detachment reminded me that home is not really the here and now. I'm a tourist, a traveller, a passerby. I'm on a long journey home, heavenwards.

Parting.

天无不散之宴席。
夕阳无限好， 只是近黄昏。

I remembered how it was when my my senior resigned. My tear ducts would be activated whenever she put her arms around me. And on my last day at my previous , I cried buckets, and missed my dear kakis to bits.

People do come and go. It's an event, and the aftermath of such events fade with time. Somehow, just somehow, I don't think I can get used to such bittersweet partings.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

9th day away from home, and my first snow

The 9th day away from home. My last bit of sunshine is neither withstanding the cold, nor the dreariness of it. And “It” refers to the humdrum of work.

7 days into the trip, I was over the moon. I saw my first snowfall, and scrutinized the first snowflake that stuck to the airplane window. I was overjoyed when I saw the fluffy bits float down and disappear into shiny puddles that turned the ground into a colourful reflection of lights from nearby planes and the airport terminal. I even exclaimed aloud that it’s snowing, and refused to believe myself till I heard the passenger in front of me exclaim that too. It rarely snowed in Shanghai, and yet, there I experienced my very first snowfall on 18 Jan 2011.

Needless to say, I took plenty of photos of the snowscape and the bare, leafless trees that lined the roads. Like an overgrown and extremely excited kid, I openly stretched out my hands to catch snowflakes. I opened my mouth to attempt to eat a snowflake, and I was happy to walk out in the cold, day or night. I discovered a new use for the umbrella. It’s good against the snow too, next to rain and shine. I realized the importance of ear muffs and gloves. I felt what it was like to live in a fridge, and to no longer feel your ears, nose and face. I was delighted to be in the cold!

It always took me 10 minutes longer to get dressed with all the clothes. And it always takes forever for me to take my eyes off the snowscape outside my window.

And then, day 9 came. Day 9 just splashed me with cold icy water somehow. Every morsel of novel enthusiasm was frozen. I’m bound to go home on Day 11, back to sunny island, back to a normal life. No more taxi-taking from place to place. No more sumptuous international breakfast waiting for me. No more gatherings with friendly colleagues across the globe. I’m going home to the mundane and usual. 1.5 hours MRT ride to work, emails to read, and problems to solve. Not that I’m not doing that now, but from day 11 onwards, it’s all without all the novelty of being in a new place.

Work and travel, travel and work. I enjoy it no doubt. But alas, this is an intense lifestyle.

As with my only new year resolution, I need to pull the brakes, pause, think, and see. Humdrum is never humdrum, and a piece of an amazing, grand and perfect plan. Oh how great, how great my Creator God is!