Yearly Reminder

Chinese New Year though troublesome is also really quite meaningful. That's always how I feel only  after the event.

Thinking about it days or weeks before the festive season often makes me moody because of the self imposed list of spring cleaning tasks; as well as the struggle to store all the food ingredients in the fridge. It feels even
more of a headache when by rotation it is our turn to host my husband's group of JC friends and wives.

There is a routine schedule which our families and friends adhere to year after year, eg meeting his side of the family, my side of the family, his friends, my uncles and aunts etc. There is some feeling of dread when you imagine having to answer questions about whether the kids have partners or  when they are tying the knot, as if I am responsible for their lives.

That aside however, there are also many interesting people to catch up with. Without fail, a nephew who is a police entertains with cases he is investigating and my brother in law back for CNY with his family shares about polarisation, real estate, economy, cultural habits in US. I am also never tired of getting my Hong Kong resident uncle and wife recount over and over again their life journey covering their childhood in Singapore, the hardship endured during the Cultural Revolution in China where they foolishly chose to emigrate to as youths; and their early struggles in Hong Kong when they managed to get approval to leave China at middle age.

At CNY gatherings, the young engage with stories on challenges in career building and raising children.  Hearing them I am relieved I have passed that stage in life. On the other hand sharing health problems with peers and talking to frail and sickly elderly relatives tell me to be mentally prepared for the inevitable weakening of body and mind. The woes of my ailing aunts and uncles sit at one end of the spectrum balanced on the other end by the animated pranks of the toddlers in the family, while in between lie varying degree of jadedness and enthusiasm among relatives of different generations.

Such then is the life passage, Chinese New Year serves as a yearly reminder.