Mark's Cosy Corner

No idea why these past couple of entries have been about the family - I guess I've been thinking alot about what are the things that really matter to me - part of an assignment for my counselling psychology class... Maybe that's why... Or maybe it happens to be the way my life has been...

I just came back from a simple family dinner. Mum, Amah & Ah Kong, Sue and me... Nothing out of the ordinary - just a meal together on a weekday night... Yes the food was good, and yes, food has always been important to me, but it was more the time that we spent together that mattered... Telling Ah Kong for the upteenth time that I've graduated and am working... Telling Amah that her Mee Siam is the best in the world... Telling Mum that I've grown up and can take care of myself...

I remember another family dinner almost a month back. It was the farewell meal for my dear half-sister Min who was to have flown off to the States the next day for her university studies. A dinner at Dad's house with fine wine and delicious food. Again, the food and wine were enjoyable, but they were not the most important... What meant more was the time we spent together - hearing Dad and Min play the guitar together under the stars, enjoying the evening meal with Sue by my side, and feeling along with my younger half-sister Lyn when she wept at not being able to send dearest Min off at the airport...

I've come to realise that the best things in life are found in those around you. Of course I hope for better pay, of course I hope to have a better home entertainment system, of course I hope to get a better computer system... But when it comes to the crux, these things don't mean anything to me at all. I can say without flinching an eyelid that I'm prepared to let go of all these things if God desires that of me. Not so my family.

No matter what, my family means most to me. They've shaped the person I've become - from my mannerisms and idiosyncrisies, to the things I enjoy in life. I know I've not always appreciated my family, especially in the early years during the separation and divorce period, and also during my self-absorbed teenage years; but I know now that I would be at a loss without my family. Truly I can say that God has blessed my life greatly - with a wonderful job serving the young people I've been called to serve, with a wonderful ministry in church again serving the dear youths God has led me to serve, but most of all with a dear family I deeply love.