Distant thoughts

It's the dawn of another New Year and I am away from home. I miss the people I love, who would have gathered for the festivities, and the times when the April school holidays brought with them expectations of a train ride along the edges of steep mountains, passing bright green paddy fields and dusty little towns.

I do not own this isolation and loneliness, but I share it with other migrants and students who have left the shores of home and crossed the seas in search of 'wealth.' But wealth is what we value and treasure and even though most of us have come in search of riches and knowledge, now our wealth lies in those warm smiles and hearts we had left behind. The sea breeze still brings with it, memories from a place that I could never leave beyond a distant shore fortified by golden sands and tall palms.

When I look back through the cool winds, the warm tropical rain, dark green mountains and the millions of sincere smiles that I left behind, I also see more clearly the violence and death we have learnt to take for granted every day. With each new day that dawns as with each New Year, and amid the fire-crackers and drums, sweetmeats and music, I remember the men and women who would have left home in the year that just ended – but would never return in the new one.

I will not be cooking my meals or stepping out to work at the auspicious times. I will not even have the sweetmeats on my table or family and friends with whom to celebrate the countless joys and blessings that the past year had brought into my life or share our hopes for the New Year. But I offered a simple prayer that no matter where we are, we may give the spirit of freedom a chance to overwhelm us and change us and that even through destruction and violence we may always be inspired to rebuild the foundations of love and peace.