Every expat loves to return... for a family reunion... it's like going back to 'the mother ship' for a sortie; to reconnect with family and loved ones, old mates, the landscape, the vibe and general familiarity and the old haunts one loves and misses...
Ten things on REFLECTION.
1. No, I don't want to go back to permanently live in SA. (And I don't think I need to justify why...)
2. Yes, I would like to turn the clock back and relive many of those treasured years with our precious kids before they grew up and we became 'old' !
3. I love my children, children -in- law and grand children to the most immeasurable degree. (the ones both in NZ and SA - of course!)
4. And if I'd said Yes to number 1, then I still wouldn't feel WHOLE, as I'd then have a daughter and son- in- law and 2 g.kids here... so either way I can't have them all close by, even though I'm like a clucking mummy hen with chicks.
5. Khalil Gibran said ' Your children are not your children... ...' I try to remind myself of that but it's as hard as hell !
6. Immigration ain't for ninnies, nor is opting not to emigrate.
7. South Africans are a unique breed and I'm proud to be a Saffer, although not proud of our tragic legacy.
8. I was privileged to grow up in South Africa and not in the middle of the 1st or 2nd World War or in a current country ravaged by full-blown war. (At any given time there are an estimated 20 million refugees & displaced people on the planet, due to war !....)
9. I feel terribly guilty for being born a Caucasian Saffer, even though I had no choice in the matter.
10. I continue to pray for solutions, peace, harmony, more equity, better opportunities...and mostly for no violence and far more safety for all people in South Africa.
We are all children of the Universe!
Children - kHALIL gIBRAN - the prophet.
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. '
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