In my Filipino family, showing you love someone is sharing your food. This past few days it has been all about spending lots of time with family over meals in Illinois. We are forging new memories with a new generation of kids in the family, breaking pan de sal together, trying new foods, telling stories of the past, playing games, playing/learning mah jong, sharing memories of past events getting together, and more importantly being together and not doing anything fancy…just being. We are sad that our dear uncle is not doing well, but we cherish this time, we tell the jokes and puns that he would have interjected, we stuff our emotions with all the food and share our love in so many different ways. Above all the noise of laughter, storytelling, and cacophony of babies crying or toddlers having meltdown, we engage/we sit back, we soak it all in. We love and we are loved.

[Photo: Courtesy of my cousin KAT]