It’s high time I stopped being so selfish.

So on Sunday, instead of cavorting around the city or jetting off on another road trip, I visited my aunts, uncles and cousins from mum’s side of the family. 

I haven’t seen them in eight years, and I was cursing myself for not making an effort to spend more time with them.

Although I can’t speak a word of Bahasa and it’s been years since I last saw all of them, the welcome I received was so heart warming.

My aunt and cousins drove for over an hour to fetch me at the kost. We proceeded to drive for another hour to visit my cousin Annie and her family, where we had a sumptuous lunch and a smorgashboard of my favorite Indonesian snacks. From there, it was off to Aunt Tutik’s home, where more snacks awaited. We then stopped by Aunt Lusi’s home for more snacks, a tearful and heart-wrenching look through photo albums, and chats about life as we know it. Our last stop was to my cousin Wiwik’s home for dinner and to watch a DVD of my cousin Chandra’s wedding last June.

I couldn’t converse with them as much as I would have liked, and I was rather ashamed for my blatant inability to carry on a conversation in Bahasa.

But it didn’t seem to matter to them. They would just look at me with kind eyes and warm smiles.

“We are so happy to see you,” they would say. 

My heart melted. 

It’s true what they say.

Family matters.