I’m discovering that the journey I’m taking, at the stage in life I’m at, promotes introspection. Hurtling along at highway speeds, alone, hour after hour, inspires the mind to wander in a variety of directions.

One of those directions, for me, has been Family.

I am the elder child of an eldest son and an eldest child… each of them a member of a large loving family.

My sister and I grew up taking those family ties for granted, and, since becoming adults, we have learned to appreciate them.

The Saturday before I left Winnipeg, my sister and brother-in-law hosted a farewell barbeque in their back yard and invited a microcosm of our extended family. In attendance were one of our mother’s remaining brothers and our father’s three surviving sisters.  The “baby” of that group was 82.

Two of the four senior siblings were escorted by an offspring; another by a daughter and her husband; the fourth (NOT the “baby”) drove herself.

Additional guests included Max, a friend of more than 20 years who became an honorary member of our extended “family” as a result of sharing a house with my sister and brother-in-law when they returned to Winnipeg; Theresa, his partner; my friend, Nuo, who has been a major factor in my decision to go to China to teach English (Chengdu is Nuo’s home city, and she initiated my contact with CUIT, where I will be teaching); and Bob and Jeanette, the parents of my daughter’s boyfriend (whom I will meet for the first time in a few days).

Written down, the guest list appears complicated; the reality was anything but. It was a “family” party - my favourite kind - a mosaic of unique individuals who, for a few hours, merge into a harmonious whole.

That phrase, “a harmonious whole,” sounds very Chinese, as does the link to family. I’ve spent my recent days reading a book about China by an author who grew up in and around Chengdu. The importance of “family” is a strong, recurring theme in her story, and I am hoping that it is something that I, and my Chinese hosts, will have in common.

I bring with me to China one piece of jewelry, a gift from my immediate family at the barbeque. It is a pendant, custom-made to my brother-in-law’s design. On the front is a book (books, and reading, are my addiction), a pen (writing is my vocation, and my avocation), and a tiny opal (October is my birth month); on the back are the words, “On to your future,” and the first initials of my two children, my sister and brother-in-law, and their two sons.    

      I will miss them terribly, but I will also KNOW that they are just beyond the horizon.