@Jennifer Carroll Bulgin I wouldn't go back to live. 56 now - menopausal in the Middle Kingdom was not what I wanted to do. 😄 1.4 billion people is a lot of people and a frenetic pace so every day is an adventure whether you want one or not. 😄 I do miss certain aspects of the culture, speaking the language, people/friendships and quality of life to some degree (cost of living is so much more affordable). It's a very nuanced and complex country, but I wouldn't have stayed 12 years if it was so horrible. The paradox of it being highly surveilanced with no privacy was that there was very little violent crime. So as a single woman, I felt a much greater sense of freedom and mobility in my daily life. Pros and cons to every place. I'm grateful for the experience and what I Iearned about myself in the process, but every journey has an ending. Maybe aspects of that experience can/will resurface in my life in a different way, which would be great! I'm just not certain what that would look like. Something to think about....🤔

@Myss Mystyc Thank you for sharing this! Grief is such a unique and sacred journey. It's also great that you channeled all those feelings into something productive. I would be very interested to read your book. Where can we find it? I am a big fan of the Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, and she wrote a beautiful book called "Notes on Grief" about the loss of her father. I had just lost mine and her story resonated so much with mine, I cried from beginning to end. So cathartic! Just sharing her work if curious.