Remembering

It's Chinese New Year today. Another turning of the year, the lunar year. I remember my mother whom I lost in April, and Mei Phing who left us just before the year ended in 2005. It's times like these we miss the ones we love acutely. I suppose so much of our memories of each other are also bound by occasions, and when they leave us, each occasion will wash us over with the times we shared meals, laughter and talking. We miss the warmth of their smiles, the sound of their voices, their laughter as they hurried to tell a tale, to share a joke. We miss holding them and saying how much we love them this Chinese New Year. Someone once said to me, they will always be with you now, in spirit. Being human, we yearn otherwise, wanting always it to be the way it was.