Traveling For the Holidays Helps My Family Focus on the True Meaning of the Season

Every year when the festive season is in (such is when you can hear the New Year themed ads with distinctive New Year themed songs play on repeat when grocery shopping), the same wonder seems to repeat. My eyes gazing on concerned individuals who are now my hubby and our 3-year old toddler but my mind transfixed on the next Christmas holiday destination. Where do we go next? So question to all the international families out there: Are you at home where you are? And when did / will you find it? Will you create it?

Having 3 different cultures in our little family and living in a place that is neither our hometown, my hubby and I both long accepted that sometimes it is okay to not know where your home is. People say “Home is where the Heart is”. Our hearts are those wild animals we simply think we can tame but in fact we may never be able to. Sometimes a heart can be anywhere it wants to be, or nowhere at all. A heart can go totally M.I.A. and the whole universe would rumble trying to find it. And it will come back. Sometimes in its new self. So that’s why in this sentimental season, we decide to travel.

Having a break is always a good thing. Truth is, we need breaks more than we think we do. Breaks for our minds. Breaks for our legs. Breaks for our souls. Breaks for space. Breaks from places. Breaks for nothing. Breaks for no one. Breaks for you. Breaks for me. Breaks for the little one. Break. The definition of which could be understood in many ways. To break, to divide. A recess, to pause, to stop. Temporarily or permanently.

Why do we and all the people try to do what we do, to be, to create, to make? We are all stories in the end. We live in the moments. We are the moments. The moments are us. Moments will be stories. Leave a good one, don’t we all want that? We teach our kids to never be nasty if they want a good story but I suppose we cannot guarantee that, right? So I guess the least we could try is not to live boringly. Go travel, find a new temporary home for our hearts this Christmas and perhaps next year too.

And occasionally we need to accept the fact that, in life or in our little family we can only inspire certain people so much, and every so often not enough for them to transform however. Sometimes people just need to experience life and learn to do things alone. Learn to say hello in a new language, learn how certain cultures celebrate the holidays different than ours or not celebrate at all. Get lost, and be found. Temporary escape. Momentary solitude. Pack your soul. “Hurry up, we are dreaming.” Feel the shiver. Touch the breeze. Taste the ocean. Taste the snow. Pick the berries. Pick those lava stones. Sit on a volcano. Sip that chai. Watch the sky blush as she slowly wakes up from her sleep behind the hunky mountains. Or that magical moment when the sun and the ocean meets. Crazy it is to think how certain things happen every day, 365 days a year for the entire time of our existence, yet we forget to make time for the magic, and we forget to make time for each other.

Be it a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, or a friend. Sometimes we just forget about the people who were there with us, for us. Sometimes we take their presence so granted that we fail to acknowledge our special people at all. Remember each other. Remember to love. Remember to remember.
Every year when the festive season is in, the same wonder seems to repeat. My eyes gazing on concerned individuals who are now my hubby and our 3-year old toddler but my mind transfixed on the next holiday destination. Where do we go next? So question to all the international families out there: Are you at home where you are? And when did / will you find it? Will you create it?

But after all, maybe I will just breathe, and have a good night sleep here in this strangely comfortable bed at this new place next to my loved ones. And wake up to a new year, new me, new us, and let the rest come as they will.

Text: Gia Tran
Photo: Gia’s Family Travel Photo