mtbc | Nostalgia triggered by holiday greetings

It feels strange to be finally getting around to getting some greetings cards out to mostly family. I remember where people are, often houses and regions I know well, and I miss them. At this point, I don't know how much more I will ever even see of them. I hope to make it back to England, and to surviving aunts and uncles, most years. Still, at this time of year I'm most cognizant of how my life choices have pulled me away from so many irreplaceable loved ones, starting with my parents: on gaining majority I never much lived near them again but, not by choice, I mostly tended to go where the jobs where. As it is, a fair few of my cards are going out to houses that I can picture but will hardly ever visit again. So much of what I hold dear is intangible to me, held only in my mind. It makes for such a contrast with the first decade of my life, when so many of those I love were within far easier reach. I wish I could live in all the places and see all the people but that is not how life works, at least my life, where I have moved all over and left so much behind, with the silver lining of seeing new places and meeting new people but having so much of my past that they do not share. There are many things that I wish I could live through again, that at least I generally had the presence of mind to appreciate at the time. In time, new things will fill my life and distract me from the road I traveled but I wish I could be holding on to it, living it, all at once. There is much I clearly remember and those I have not spoken with for decades remain dear to me and ever welcome, and I hope they have some idea that I still appreciate past kindnesses. The good side of all this is that: if I miss so much of it, then I was probably happy through plenty. I look forward to being happy through plenty more.