Family is where your heart is

My good friend Simon whom I met in my Bangkok

Here I am in Brisbane with the family for a few days.  It is great to be here. I am simply with my sisters and their families and enjoy it so much.  This is so no matter how far away I live nor how long I live on my own.
    

My experience of being in Bangkok for over 12 years has not turned me into a twisted, isolated individual but rather has given me a context where I have cemented my identity and sense of belonging. 


Throughout my time in my Bangkok, I have not moved away from my family but instead deepened and widened my sense of it.  I recognize this with coming home this time and visiting and reaching out to reconnect with significant others in my life.  My family is my sisters and their families but it also includes others who are so close to me and mean so much in my life.

 

One such person is Simon, a Sydneysider who would often venture to his beloved Bangkok which is where I met him.  Like all my family, he is a good and kind person, he has his own brokenness and his own strengths, he shares both friendship and love.  He is a dear person as are all the members of my family.  Each has their story they bring to the table.  The good and bad bits all make up their story, make up our shared story and all is accepted for that is who we are. 


Family is more than just a given nuclear unit.  It is where we place our heart and open it up to others who take us in and together we become one in some funny way.