So.... it's been a hot minute since I posted on this blog. "No kidding, Ellen. Didn't you move your whole family overseas for 3 years, move them all back during a global pandemic, and then try to keep the ship afloat while the crew all struggled mightily with repatriation during and after said global pandemic?" Aye, aye, sailor. That I did.
So here I am. I'm now typing on a computer that wants to randomly change my text to Chinese because my oldest became pretty fluent in Mandarin at his international school in Manila, and he uses this computer for weekly tutoring with his beloved teacher back in Manila. We always have rice in the fridge now. I will never, ever lack appreciation for driving my own car wherever I want to go whenever I want, with the knowledge that there will be plentiful parking available when I get there. We all miss the best mango we will ever taste, and at the same time, we're all so thankful for easy access to Bojangles.
We all look much the same as we did, though the boys insist on making rapid physical changes against my will. But we're never gonna be the same inside after a few life changing years integrated into another culture. We're still dealing with the fall out from that. Sometimes I want to slap "Handle with Care" stickers on all of us. We still need it, and wishing we didn't doesn't make it so.
I don't know if anyone will read this. No one may. But I posted a meme the other day that said something like, "If the only birds who sang were the ones with the best songs, we'd all miss out." I need to apply that logic to my writing. There are so, so many amazing voices out there on the internet with profound things to say that weren't there when I started blogging in 2006. It's tempting to think that they've said it all so profusely and so well that there's no need for my piddly words. But maybe I need to cheep anyway.
