|
Backdrop:
I moved on, pursued a MBA degree, and encountered a divine blessing when a high tech global company recruited me on campus. So in 1980 in my early twenties, I found myself in the heart of Silicon Valley, beginning my corporate life journey at the International Headquarters division. This song came about at a certain confluence of good, bad and ugly forces. First, was news of my aging parents-in-law battling with health issues and given the high health cost, a decision was made to return to their home country in Asia where public healthcare was available. Second, my husband quit his job to start own practice at home so he's able to tend to my 6-year old son, as “babysitter-grandparents” are leaving our extended family home. The best news came at about the same time when all these events were swirling, with my company sending me on an expat assignment in Asia, close to my parents-in-law’s home country they were returning to. This song was sung many years later in retrospect appearing as 8th vignette in the poet’s 20th year anniversary gift to spouse, covering 20 chapters of song journeys together.
Extract from: ROMings and RAMings: Vignette 8
Door Opened, Road Taken
to everything, there is a season
God’s impeccable timing is the reason
seek and ye shall find
encounters of the ethereal kind
when one door closes
another opens to the roses
|
 |
| www.hubblesite.org |
|
|
Backdrop:
The following vignettes captures our adventures in valleys and peaks abroad culminating in our return to Bay Area late 2002, ending one phase and beginning another, launched to new orbits.
ROMings and RAMings: Vignette 12
Boxes and Boxing
as their journey together progresses
each found a way to organize life’s stresses
putting things in various boxes
getting in and out, closing and some case, tosses
as with boxes when one is trapped
boxing is a natural way out of the crap
redefinitions heaved upon each other
like feathers and clutter
they smother
|
 |
| www.hubblesite.org |
|
|
ROMings and RAMings: Vignette 18
Marital Serendipity
marriages are made in heaven so they say
the real truth is to live it on earth
day-by-day oh dear lord these things I pray
where is up without its down
where is happiness without its frown
where is darkness if not to contrast light
where is day without its night
where is perfection without its flaws
where is healing without life’s claws
sacred contracts
complementing meant-to-be’s
opposite attracts
is the synergistic outcome you see
|
Backdrop:
5 more vignettes were added when our silver wedding anniversary was celebrated in 2007. Extracts below reflect major life transitions coped through the block of 5 years upon return to the Bay Area late 2002. In Hong Kong, we lived in Repulse Bay, south of the island. A year later, I left the mothership which nurtured my career and spawned many friendships to attend to caring for aging parents in Canada, placing my father in a nursing home.
ROMings and RAMings: Vignette 21
Homecoming
dined at gaddi’s chef table in peninsula hotel
celebrated their 20th, exiting hk in style to bid farewell
alas, london was not-to-be
from repulse bay to frisco bay, mais oui
after venturing 9 incredible years away from home
time has come to renew silicon ties and dome
at about same time, an aging mom looking after ailing dad
she gave it all she had till the moment we dread
a rude awakening of life’s cycle realities
siblings sandwiched with caring for parents and kids
at the crossroad, she left mothership
after 23 years, courage to dip and new waters to sip
|
Extract from “Farewell to Arms” email message saying goodbye to wonderful people she connected:
alas, the time has come to bid farewell
to slow down in a different world
one in which tolls the aging bell
in the shape of beloved parents old
|
ROMings and RAMings: Vignette 24
Motherload
mother’s health took a troubling turn
brain seizures and beta amyloids churn
siblings bonded stronger each hardship to spurn
family is all they have to weather life-turn
painstaking love to find onto hearts burn
|
|