We’re winding down our time back in America.  A good month and a half back home and elsewhere.

At times it’s been like summer vacation back in the days when we didn’t have/need adult supervision and our summer wasn’t choreographed. When we had large chunks of unstructured time to read, walk in the fields, create, destroy.

When facing open tracts of time, one approaches with grand plans and grand plans arise. Renovate a kitchen. Really give that carburetor a good cleaning. Buy a house. Start a company. Spend a large sum of money on the extraneous kipple that we seem to require. I’ve got time. Maybe I could make extra money by multi-tasking; donating plasma, whilst catching up on reading.

Now, with our time here expiring, signs of our more frantic life invade. Emails requesting work info. Making dinner plans far into the future. Planning the next trip home. The pace is quickening.

But, primarily it’s been a chance to winnow our way back into the lives of those we love. A breakfast, lunch, dinner or a drink. A birthday, a walk, a game of trivia. A chance to aggravate our children and do their laundry for them. A chance to dote for a while and then wonder why they aren’t more self-sufficient. They assure us that things get taken care of when we’re not around. We’re assured that we’re still needed.  

Next week, and beyond, Secret Asian Family will be coming to you from Bangkok, Thailand, the Big Mango.

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